


Polaris

by pastel_didactic



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - No Personas (Persona Series), Detective Akechi Goro, Drug Use, I'm still not sorry guys, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, M/M, Mutual Pining, Phantom Thief Joker - Freeform, They're in their 20s y'all, Tumblr Prompt, enemies to lovers kinda, how treating a gunshot wound in your supposed nemesis leads to a love story, in media res opening, only to knock someone out tho, rating will go up as story progresses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-16
Updated: 2019-11-23
Packaged: 2020-10-19 16:44:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 20
Words: 50,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20660447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pastel_didactic/pseuds/pastel_didactic
Summary: “Joker, you’re burning up-- you’ve lost way too much blood. Why did you come here, and not the hospital?”In retrospect that was perhaps a stupid question. Joker couldn’t just stumble into a hospital and expect to be helped without also being promptly handcuffed to his hospital bed. However, what Joker’s actual reply was genuinely surprised Goro. His reply wasn’t snarky, it wasn’t flirtatious. What issued from his mouth was an honest, genuine tone paired with a bleary, feverish smile.“I trust you.”





	1. The Shot

**Author's Note:**

> Based on Vampireapologist's Tumblr Post: "I don't drink whiskey but I make sure to always have a bottle on hand so when my rival gets injured in a knife fight and only has me to turn to for help at 2AM I can pour it on them as disinfectant before I patch them up and we inevitably fall in love" 
> 
> Hello everyone! I'm back! Sorry, you were probably expecting the continuation to Letters from Home. I'm still working on it! It's getting bigger by the day, and I'm having a hard time keeping up with it and school plus work. I will get it done and post it soon!
> 
> Until then, this is Polaris, my first chapter work in ten years! Based on this lovely prompt that I found mentioned above while randomly scrolling through Tumblr, and it kinda ran away with me. This was initially going to be a one shot, but it ended up being too long. So I've broken it down to make it easier. 
> 
> !!Because of the alcohol and inevitable violence I've aged up our characters so they're in their 20s!!
> 
> Once again I'd like to thank the absolutely wonderful @Stellahbella for reading this at a ridiculous hour to make sure it sounded good for a first chapter. I hope you all enjoy it!

A knock came to his apartment door at what could only be accurately described as the ass crack of dawn. The knock was firm, insistent, as if there was some kind of hurry. Goro opened his bearly eyes from where he’d fallen asleep on the sofa, setting his book aside on the coffee table. A second knock came, this time harder, and with far more urgency. Picking up his pace, Goro reached the door and peered through his peephole, only to find blackness on the other side. Alarmed, Goro reached for his sidearm and slowly opened the door without opening the chain. On the other side of the door was one panting, barely conscious Joker. Goro slammed the door shut enough (forcing an accompanying groan from the thief) to pull the chain free from it’s latch. Throwing the door open again, he was faced with the full dead weight of the leader of the Phantom Thieves falling on him with exactly no efforts made to catch himself. 

“Joker!?” Goro panicked, pulling the thief inside his home. He propped the raven against the wall enough to peek into the hallway to see if he’d been followed, then shut and locked the door once more. His only reply was a weak groan, forcing Goro into detective mode. Examining the thief, he found that Joker’s red glove was plastered over his right hip, and that one glove was significantly darker than the other. “ _ Have you been shot _ ,” his voice pitched high when he was scared and though the detective would deny to his grave how terrified he felt in this instant, the truth came out in his voice. 

Joker had become a staple in his life, without even really trying. The other man had taunted him, challenged him, and their interactions have become somewhat of a dance over the last two years. Somewhere among all the bickering, flirtatious messages, and the seemingly endless cat and mouse chase they’d made for themselves, Goro found himself fond of the thief. Joker was the only reliable constant in his life. He wasn’t sure what he’d do with himself if the beautiful raven bled to death in his kitchen. 

Akechi dropped to his knees, and Joker sucked in a pained breath as he gently pried Joker’s hand from his injury. “I’m sorry, but I must take a look at this to assess the damage.” The bullet looked intact, thank god, and was lodged in Joker’s hip bone. “Getting here must have been so painful. I’m… so sorry, Joker.” 

“Fer wha’,” Came the slurred reply. Chills settled against Goro’s spine-- surely today was the beginning of the end times, for Joker had lost all of his grace. 

“I’m sorry that you were shot. I promise you, I’ll find who did this.” Goro sprang back up and he led Joker carefully to a bar stool by his island counter. “Please, sit here.” A fire was filling the detective, stronger than anything he’d ever felt before in his life. If he didn’t know any better, he’d call the lava hot emotion rolling under his skin “rage.” He was resolved to find whomever had decided to shoot Joker, and shoot them in return. But now was not the time for anger. He had to tend to Joker first. 

Joker slumped in his chair, and when Goro returned with what he’d been searching for, he’d found the raven feverish and hot to the touch. Tearing off one of his leather gloves with his teeth, he felt the raven’s forehead, just above his mask. “Joker, you’re burning up-- you’ve lost way too much blood. Why did you come here, and not the hospital?” 

In retrospect that was perhaps a stupid question. Joker couldn’t just stumble into a hospital and expect to be helped without also being promptly handcuffed to his hospital bed. However, what Joker’s actual reply was genuinely surprised Goro. His reply wasn’t snarky, it wasn’t flirtatious. What issued from his mouth was an honest, genuine tone paired with a bleary, feverish smile. 

“I trust you.” 

After a quick pause for shock, Goro rocketed back into action. He produced a kit, larger than a general first aid kit, a bottle, and a glass. Into the glass, Goro poured a not insignificant amount of whiskey from the bottle he’d retrieved. “Mmm, tryin’a get me drunk?” 

“Not for the reason you’re thinking, but yes. This will numb the pain.” 

“S’ hot in here.”    
  
“That’s because you’re losing blood, Joker.” 

“M’name’s not Joker.” 

Goro wrinkled his brow and slid the glass towards the Phantom Thief. “Your name will stay Joker until you decide to take off that mask. I don’t want you telling me while you’re incapactiated from blood loss and alcohol. Drink this, quickly, and help me take off your shirt.” Joker hummed about how he loved it when Goro was demanding of him as he downed the glass of whiskey and Goro set about unbuttoning the Reinassance-French style shirt the boy wore. “Honestly, where do you get clothes like these,” Goro asked, stopping momentarily when the shirt opened to reveal a chiseled and sweaty torso, as if carved from marble. Of course, the marble effect was due to how clammy the other man was, and now was not the time to be ogling him. Goro had to reign himself in for what had to be the third time tonight with a roll of his eyes. He needed to get a fucking grip, already!

Distracting himself by pouring Joker another glass, Goro dropped back down to his knees and pushed apart Joker’s legs enough to settle between them. He knew how this position must have looked to the thief, and he honestly waited for the jokes to come pouring from those snarky lips. However, Goro was more alarmed by the fact that Joker wasn’t making a sound save for pained grunts and pants. Goro looked up from his position to find Joker watching him, his red gloved hand gripping the empty glass on the table, but Joker wasn’t present. A million miles away, delirious. Goro had to work fast. 

Spurred once again into action, Goro opened his kit and retrieved disinfectant, a sealed pair of long forceps, sterile gloves, stitching supplies, and gauze wrap. Goro changed his now bloodied gloves for the sterile pair, disinfected the area using gauze wrap and iodine, and braced Joker’s hip with one hand. “I’m so sorry,” Goro whispered as he inserted the forceps into the wound, commencing the process of retrieving the bullet. Joker jolted in his seat and yelped in pain as Goro pulled on the bullet. “I know, I know, You’re doing well, Joker. I need you to stay as still as you can, I’ve almost got it.” Joker clenched onto the bottom of the island stool, whimpering in agony. The glass from earlier slid from his hand and across the countertop before he shattered the glass in his grip. One more measured tug and a shout from Joker and the bullet was freed. Goro dropped the bullet onto the wrappers of his gauze and forceps, rushing to stem the new gush of fresh blood issuing from the wound. Returning to the entry wound, Goro retrieved two plastic guards and suture threads. After multiple failed attempts, he threaded the needle, pinched together the injury with the guards, and began stitching the wound closed. By this point, Joker was weak and unresponsive, but still conscious. 

“I need you to stay conscious, Joker. Just a little while longer,” Goro soothed, finishing up his stitching as thoroughly as possible. He absolutely did not want to risk Joker opening these, and he wanted to ensure it healed beyond a shadow of a doubt. When it was over and the wound was properly cleaned and bandaged, Goro stood and discarded his gloves and used supplies. Joker whined, as if he missed Goro’s presence for all of the five feet he was apart from the other man. Goro returned and slug an arm around Joker with one hand and braced Joker’s closest arm with the other. He had to get Joker somewhere comfortable. In a moment of indulgence, however, Goro leaned in and placed a soft kiss to the temple of the delirious thief, whispering a soft, “Well done.” 

Easing Joker up, Goro led him down the hall of his small apartment to his bedroom. He laid the man down to rest, and Joker moved without a single word. The other man was rendered docile by his endeavor, and passed out upon immediate contact with the pillow. 

Leaving Goro alone, with his nemesis in his bed.

Perhaps nemesis was not the word he wanted to use. At first, yes, of course. They were enemies. Both operating in the name of justice, for the sake of their own justice, but in reality they had the same motivations. Now, however, Goro found he did not regret a single thing he’d just done. Goro had… strong feelings for the Phantom Thief. Strong feelings the detective absolutely would not name at this time; it was far too soon to call these feelings by such an impactful name. Still, they persisted, and Goro found he would do everything all over again if Joker needed the aid. 

Glancing down at Joker’s mask, his first thought was that the man was sure to roll over its sharp edges and hurt himself. His second thought was that he could remove the mask, but… he both did, and did not want to do so. If Goro removed Joker’s mask now, the breach of trust would be incalculable. Anything they’d built up in the way of friendship (and was it even that?) would be destroyed with zero hesitation, never to be built back up in his lifetime. However, if he did remove the mask, he would know the identity of the man who stole his heart.

Which was better, Goro’s mind supplied, not revealing him and seeing him again, or knowing who Joker is in reality, and lose him forever? 

Goro decided on the former, and left without a word. 

When Akira awoke, it was far into the next day. He felt sluggish, painful, and he absolutely should not get out of this bed. He vaguely remembered last night’s activities. He remembered tracking down a target- a vengeful and greedy mob boss, when he was jumped and shot in his escape. He remembered thinking which was closer- a hideout or Goro’s, and stumbling across rooftops and alleyways to get to his lovely detective. He’d be much safer there, and he trusted Goro to help him. Akira also remembered seeing Goro tending to him, the kiss on the side of his head, the feeling of safety. 

Around the room, Akira saw small items, sun plants, a toy ray gun displayed on a shelf with several books. A well-played cello propped up in the corner next to a hanging bowl with a marimo terrarium skillfully placed by the window. This was Goro’s own bedroom, but Goro was nowhere to be seen. Pushing himself up carefully, minding his stitches, Akira found a glass of water that was still cold, and a note on the bedside table. 

_ Joker, _

_ I have this feeling, call it a hunch, that you’re going to try to leave when you wake up. Despite that I would prefer you stay, especially in your condition, I will not stop you. I simply caution you to not strain yourself. Please do not burst your stitches. I took great care in sealing your injury tightly, so they will be tough to break. I also promise you that I did not touch or move your mask-- your identity still eludes me. Please return to me tonight or tomorrow, when time allows, so I can maintain your bandages. I urge you to be careful, Joker. I was startled far more than I expected to see you in such pain. Be mindful of yourself, please, for my sake if you cannot do it for your own. _

_ Until we meet again, _

_ Goro _

A warm smile came across Joker’s face, and his hands flew up to his mask. The owlish mask was still intact on his face-- Goro didn’t even move it one inch. Akira felt an intense surge of emotion at the very idea that Goro cared enough about his privacy to refuse such a blatant temptation. His enemy, in his very clutches, and he still did not betray the trust Akira had placed in him. The feeling in Akira’s chest seemed to glow with its intensity, filling him with warmth. Gently draped over the back of the desk chair in the corner was his coat and vest, and Akira rifled through his pockets for a spare calling card. Picking up a pen from the stationary cup on the desk, he jotted a quick note, gathered his belongings, and made to leave. 

As Akira left the room and moved down the hall, he heard the faint sound of the TV from the living room. Moving slowly, he breached the hall to find the TV was indeed on, but no one was watching the program. Goro was fast asleep on the couch, his laptop open and still on in front of him. Files were strewn over the coffee table, chairs, couch, even under the detective’s own head. He must have just fallen asleep, Akira surmised, and moved extremely silently to avoid waking the brunet. Leaning over to leave his note where Goro would find it, Akira saw that Goro was investigating the same mob conglomerate that had shot him. For all that his crush was intelligent, messing with that band was risky, and the last thing Akira wanted was Goro to be shot just as he was. Grabbing the pen Goro was using to write with, he made a single addendum to his card, and left the note on the side table by Goro’s head. 

For as much as Akira wanted to place a soft kiss on Goro’s forehead, or whisper to his sleeping form how much he appreciated him, Goro had been asleep for so short a time that any noise would wake him. Given the dark circles starting to bruise under those gorgeous crimson eyes, Akira would rather not interrupt his rest. Instead, the thief left without a sound out the window, onto the fire escape, and into the concrete jungle of Shibuya. 

It wasn’t until he was home that he realized Goro had also mended the bullet hole in his vest.

_ Goro, _

_ Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. I deeply appreciate the care you placed in treating my injury, and how careful you were with my identity. This wasn’t the first time I’ve been shot, however it was by far the best care I’ve ever received. I will return as requested, if more so to see your face than for my injuries. You were very brave, my detective, for accepting me into your home as you did. You treated me without prejudice, and with a skill and precision I’ve not seen outside of a hospital. I admire you a great deal, Akechi Goro. While I can’t exactly promise I won’t tear the stitches at some point, I will surely do my best to preserve your efforts.  _

_ P.s.: Your safety means far more to me than revenge.  _

_ Most ardently yours, _

_ Joker _


	2. A Spoonful of Honey

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow this was sooner than expected! I had some snippets lying around from when I wrote the original one-shot for this so I fleshed them out of more this chapter. But I didn't exactly expect... how long... this chapter turned out to be. 
> 
> This story is going to be moderately long, and I'm not sure exactly how many chapters will be this size, but I'm going to kinda aim for a happy medium between last chapter and this one. 
> 
> WARNING: This chapter does describe a kidnapping case Goro was investigating with the intent to traffic the victim. It's very briefly mentioned and isn't in any particular detail, but I wanted to post a little warning just in case. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter!

A night had passed since Joker’s injury, and Goro had yet to see the other man. Joker was probably resting, he knew that, but still- Goro felt an unnecessary amount of anxiety. What if he had found trouble on the way home? What if he was bleeding out in some alleyway somewhere? What if- the thoughts kept coming, one after another. What if, what if, what if. His anxiety ran away with him at mach speeds, and he was deep inside one of these spirals when his phone rang on the kitchen counter. Picking up the phone without glancing at the name, Goro accepted the phone call. “Akechi,” he said in lieu of a greeting. 

“Are you aware of your schedule this week?” 

A stone dropped into his stomach, cold and heavy. Shido was on the other line, and he sounded frustrated. “Yes. I’m aware of all the appearances I need to make this week,” Goro tried to sound respectful and patient. What Shido was doing was something Goro wished he could just… go to someone about, but in reality he knew that if he moved even one iota out from under Shido’s thumb, he’d be squashed like a bug. 

Shido Masayoshi was an up and coming politician, and Akechi Goro was his bastard son. When Shido was notified of his mother’s suicide, he took Goro in, though not for his benefit. Shido only saw him as a tool, a thing he could use. He groomed Goro to be successful in his studies so that when his success reached his prime, Shido would reveal him to the world and gain more notoriety for raising such a fine son as a single parent. He was just there to garner sympathy to Shido’s cause, to make them look like a joint unit protecting Japan, and he’d been taught that all his life. While Goro had learned that what Shido wanted from him was wrong and manipulative, it was hard for him to get out from Shido’s control. 

Goro fought with Shido on every freedom he had ever won. Everything from where he lived to his choice of school was an argument. The ability to own his apartment was one of the first. They had been arguing for weeks about Goro having his own living space when Shido finally relented on the condition that Shido have a spare key, and Goro text him his comings and goings. Shido was to know when he left, where he was going, for how long he was gone, and who he was with at that time. Even if Goro didn’t tell him, Shido somehow knew. He’d swept his apartment for bugs and cameras, so Goro could only assume someone else in his complex is an associate of Shido’s. Goro counted himself lucky that whoever that person was, they apparently had no idea that the leader of the Phantom Thieves had stopped by his home the other night. 

Goro had absolutely no illusions that he was worth absolutely nothing to his father without that success. He knew his father didn’t care for him, and honestly? That was fine. Goro was successful on his own. He worked hard, he earned his own keep. But once all of this was over, Goro wasn’t sure exactly what Shido would do to him. Would he ignore him? Abandon Goro to his own devices? He was a young adult now, just 23 years of age. Shido only persisted now because the election for Prime Minister was in a matter of weeks, and his great plan was soon to triumph. Or so he supposed. 

Goro was developing his own plans. 

“Good. Make sure you conduct each one properly, I won’t suffer a late season popularity slump because of you!” 

“Yes, father.”    
  
Shido hung up on a seething Goro, who nearly threw his phone back onto the counter in his rage. Who the fuck was Shido to order him around anymore? He was a fucking adult! So, why did Goro continue to allow this behavior? Why wasn’t he strong enough to speak up for his fucking self!? 

Deciding he needed to cool off before doing anything rash, Goro decided that he needed to stop by Leblanc for a cup of coffee and some curry. 

Leblanc was a tiny cafe that was quite a ways away from his home, but near the station where he worked. Goro would have his lunch breaks there sometimes; the atmosphere was so quiet and soft. It was the perfect place to destress after a day of difficult or even gruesome cases. The cafe was owned by an older gentleman named Sojiro, and he had only one part-time employee: Kurusu Akira. 

Goro didn’t exactly want to think about Akira. Mostly because when he did, he felt a little flustered. Akira was a man around his age who perfectly personified the cafe itself: quiet and soft. His voice was rich and deep, and he was a man of very few words. What Akira said, Akira meant. Over the course of his visits to the cafe, Goro sat in the same seat every time, and Akira knew exactly what to serve him. Once, Goro came into the cafe feeling some kind of way. The cases that day had been difficult, Sae was breathing down his neck about reports, and he was just frustrated. A cup was deftly slid in front of him, full of tea instead of coffee. Goro had looked up at Akira, confused, who simply winked at him and continued bussing the counter. As it turned out, the tea was a lovely lavender white tea with a spoonful of honey, and by the time Goro had finished it, he had completely relaxed. 

That was around the time that Goro started taking notice of him, and how attractive the other man was. This actually upset Goro, because now he was torn because of his existing feelings for Joker. He… wasn't sure what to do with that yet. He loved what he had with Joker; the honest rivalry, the flirts back and forth. He honestly didn’t feel bad when he came home from an unsuccessful attempt to stop one of his heists because Joker either flirted with him or left him something. 

In one particular instance, he was attempting to locate a system of drug traffickers operating out of Shibuya and into Osaka who had decided to upgrade from trafficking drugs to trafficking people. They’d kidnapped a young woman and they had precious little time to locate her. They had an informant who told them there was a central meeting place, but he couldn’t identify the location. That was a rough week. Goro was up most nights and frequenting Leblanc for coffee out of necessity instead of pleasure. He didn’t think he went home more than twice the entire time. One day, Akira had gone out and retrieved paper cups with lids from the nearby convenience store so he could pour Goro’s coffee to go, given he was in such a hurry. In hindsight, that kindness should have been the signal that was going to be a good day, because that night by the time he had gotten home after Sae demanded it, he had a package on his doorstep. 

On the floor in front of his door was a bundle of color photos taken from surveillance cameras posted at an intersection by the bridge leading out of the city. In the photos were a series of men meeting to exchange money for brown paper bags and, in one rather poignant instance, an unconscious woman. These were the members of the cartel he had been looking for all week! The bundle of photos were tied together with a red silk ribbon, leaving Goro absolutely no doubt who left these here for him. While he couldn’t use those photos for evidence, he was able to locate the meeting point and gather photos of his own, leading to the bust. The woman was found miraculously unharmed and had yet to be transported out of the city before she was found. She was returned to her family safely following a small hospital stay for observation.

Goro didn’t want to give up the rush he felt when chasing after and dancing with Joker, but he also didn’t want to give up the feeling of serene calm he felt in Akira’s presence. Joker was a typhoon where Akira was the calming tide, and Goro was addicted to both of them.

Finally entering the cafe after an hour of travel, he took his regular seat by the end of the bar and was surprised to see only Sojiro behind the counter. “Where’s Akira,” Goro asked after a brief pause. Sojiro turned his way, Goro’s regular order already in his hands, “He isn’t feeling well, so I gave him the day off.” 

“Ah, I see,” Goro accepted the mug and placed his order for curry, “You’re a most kind employer, Sakura-san.” 

“That boy does so much for this store, I’d give him a week if he needed it. He said he only wanted today, though.” Sojiro looked at his wristwatch and grimaced, apparently disappointed by the current time. “He’s supposed to be back by now,” Sojiro murmured under his breath. Ah, so Akira wasn’t home. Perhaps he had a curfew? 

Goro knew Akira was on probation, he also had a sneaking suspicion the charges were false. Akira was the most quiet, non-belligerent person Goro had ever met. The idea that Akira could commit a criminal offense was  _ laughable _ . Would looking into the arrest be considered prying? Perhaps. Akira never talked about the case with him. The other man always seemed to nonchalantly brush off any questions, but there was anger there, Goro knew. Whatever happened still enraged him, and for all his curiosity, Goro had maintained a level of professionalism. He was too busy trying to catch Joker to look into his favorite barista’s smear. 

Did he even want to catch Joker anymore? Goro was not so sure. Catching him meant Joker would be arrested, and Goro certainly did not want that. If he’d wanted Joker arrested, he could have done the deed himself when Joker was comatose in his bed. Instead, he tended to him, gave him his bed for the night, and left him water. Catching Joker also meant that he would inevitably be unmasked. Goro wasn’t sure what to do with that. 

Goro had strong feelings for Joker, and knowing who he was would put a real name to that beautiful face. There would be a concrete identity of the man who is, ostensibly, the most wanted thief in Japan. A birth certificate. A residence card. Physical, tangible proof that Joker exists. Part of the reason the authorities haven’t caught him yet is because he has never once slipped up enough to reveal his identity. Not a hair left behind at his heist locations, not a single fingerprint or DNA sample from sweat, saliva, or blood. No facial recognition software has been able to pick out his face from beneath that mask. Among other criminal circles apprehended by the police, the Phantom Thief Joker is all but a myth. 

Goro moved to one of the booths once his curry was set before him and began spreading out his work across the table. “I hope you don’t mind, Sakura-san, but I’d like to post up in this booth for today.” He received a noncommittal grunt from Sojiro, which he took as approval. Throwing open his laptop, Akechi Goro set to work. He’d found the name of the conglomerate most likely to be responsible for attacking Joker last night-- They were a group of Yakuza enforcers under the employ of a local gang leader. The idea that the mob was after Joker set something rumbling in his chest he didn’t want to name. Panic and anxiety were enemies of progress, after all. He had to keep looking if he planned to bring them to justice. 

Opening another tab, Goro accessed the courthouse archives and searched for Kurusu, Akira as a defendant. It would take some time for the search engine to come back with something, so Goro ate his curry slowly and nursed his coffee. While he waited he sent off a quick email to Sae, asking if any current members of the Yakuza team were in lock-up, and if there was a chance he could interview them. He’d received a reply with a cautious statement that she didn’t know what this had to do with any of his currently open cases, but she would take a look. As soon as he was done reading that email, his browser tab with the running search highlighted, and Goro tabbed over to read what the engine had found. 

Kurusu Akira had been arrested on November 24th, 20XX for what appeared to be an assault. By the court records detailing Akira’s testimony, he had been coming home from a part time job when he found a man sexually assaulting a woman in the street. He put himself between them to protect the woman, and the man (who was very drunk) attempted to grab for him and fell, sustaining a minor scrape. The plaintiff, not named, insisted Akira had pushed him, and the woman present that day testified in favor of the prosecution. Akira was convicted of assault, given leniency due to this being his first offense, and sentenced to one year of probation, which he is serving here at Leblanc. 

The way the testimony read, Goro felt as though money exchanged hands more than once along the way. The identity of the plaintiff was never made public, and kept anonymous in the records. That means someone had influence and heavy pockets. Someone set Akira up for this charge. Goro added this to the ever-growing list of cases he planned to investigate.

Goro was at work well into the afternoon, when the chime above the door signaled a new customer. The only other customer, aside from Goro. Sojiro looked up, but uncharacteristically said nothing. Goro hadn’t even noticed the faux pas until he registered someone standing by his table. Looking up, Goro saw the ever inquisitive eyes of Akira watching him, long fingers playing with the bang in front of his face. 

Goro was caught in the moment, honestly. He’d never noticed Akira had such beautiful eyes. They were always so well-hidden behind his hair and glasses, Goro never got the opportunity to see them up close. Funny, though. If he thought about it, he almost had the same exact shade of gray as-

“You’re hard at work,” Akira finally said, his voice deep and quiet. Something in Goro flushed-- that was a tone he had heard before from Joker. He knew he’d been working a long time and perhaps needed a break, but still! The detective looked up at the attractive delinquent before him and chuckled, “Ah, yes… I’m investigating couple new cases. I didn’t mean to stay so long, though. I should-”   
  
“Let me help,” Akira plunked down across the booth from him before Goro could stop him. His bag opened and Morgana, the black cat Akira was always seen with, hopped out and around the booth, settling in Goro’s lap. 

Now well and truly trapped, Goro sighed, “I suppose you could help me with this, seeing as how it isn’t an official case yet.” Akira smiled in reply, and Goro turned his laptop so both of them could better see the screen, “This is Kaneshiro Junya,” Goro began, “He is responsible for most of the criminal activity in the upper west side of Shibuya, specifically around Central Street. Money laundering, drug trafficking, human trafficking, smuggling-- I can think of a dozen charges that would stick if we had ample proof.” 

“The problem is finding that proof.”    
  
“Exactly. Any proof is liable to be paid off and destroyed by associates, nevermind paying of the court staff, which he will absolutely attempt to do the instant he’s in custody.” Goro sighed, obviously frustrated, “I can attempt to interview possible associates, however I do not want to risk tipping off Kaneshiro if one of his cohorts recognizes me. I’m young for my profession, but I’m known to most criminal organizations. Or anyone with a TV, unfortunately.”    
  
“You don’t volunteer for those interviews?”    
  
“I do not. I never did. They were something the SIU wanted to use to increase credibility. Make people feel safe if they had a successful prodigy rising through the ranks. That and…” Akechi stopped there, trailing off. Akira leaned back in the booth, crossing his arms and waiting patiently for him to continue. He shouldn’t be telling Akira any of this- if Shido knew Akira was aware of his involvement… Goro shuddered at the thought. “I’m sorry, Akira, I shouldn’t delve so much into my personal life. You asked to help me on this case, did you not? I shouldn’t derail my explanation. I apologize.” 

Akira watched him for a moment, impassive and ever patient. Goro felt as if Akira was staring into his very soul from behind those glasses. What was it about this man…? Why did he feel as though he could tell Akira everything, without judgment? Wasn’t it wrong to use this man as a sounding board for his own personal torments? He’d only ever consider telling any of this to Joker, and even then, he’d only bring his personal life up if necessary. He didn’t want to burden anyone with the truth of his existence. 

“Now, then, Kaneshiro has under his employ a group of Yakuza enforcers--”   
  
“Why are you going after Kaneshiro?” 

The question was a logical one to ask, even though Goro hated being interrupted. Picking and choosing words to say that wouldn’t implicate him in aiding and abetting a wanted criminal, Akechi replied, “He… hurt someone very close to me.” 

“A friend?”    
  
“Something like that. I mean… I would hope so. I’m not sure how he feels about that, though.” 

“What happened to him?”    
  
Goro ran his fingers across the soft fur of the cat in his lap as he decided on an answer, “These enforcers, they… shot him. I’m not sure why, I don’t have the whole story. Kaneshiro has been a white whale among the SIU for longer than I have worked there. So much of his operation is shrouded in mystery, we had no idea he  _ had _ Yakuza enforcers until last night. Akira, I… That was the final straw,” Goro moved his hand away from the cat’s soft fur and balled his hand into a fist. Just thinking about this pissed him off and he didn’t even know why. He was supposed to be on the side of justice, but he was getting angry over something one criminal did to another? 

But that wasn’t true, was it? 

He and Joker were one and the same. The both of them, fighting for justice in a world whose society just seemed to get worse, just seemed to need them, and others just like them, more and  _ more _ with each passing day. 

“I’m going to hunt them down for what they’ve done. They  _ will _ face justice. All of them. When I’m through, there will  _ be _ no organization  _ left _ .” Realizing that his emotions had run away from him, Goro stopped seething. He looked down at the cat in his lap, suddenly very interested in playing with his fur. He’d just embarrassed himself, hadn’t he?   
  
Akira hummed in understanding, but a worried look pulled at his face. “What’s that look for,” Goro asked, playing with Morgana’s ears until the cat flicked one and looked up at him, annoyed. Akira sighed, “You aren’t worried about the obvious danger dealing with a mob boss and the Yakuza will put you in, are you?” 

That was surprising. He and Akira had barely known each other, nevermind Goro’s physical attraction to the raven. Sure, Akira always seemed to understand him and what he needed, and they had wonderful conversations. But was that enough for Akira to worry about his safety like that? Maybe Akira was just that kind hearted. 

“Not one bit. There is a level of constant anxiety with this job, Akira. You do, unfortunately, grow used to it. Now, I think we’ve been side tracked well enough. Back to the case?” Akira nodded, a kind of focused resolve settling across his features as he leaned in to better see the files in front of them. “I don’t have the names of these enforcers, but I have their pictures. These were picked up from a camera outside of an alleyway facing a bank. Recognition software hasn’t picked them up, we think it’s because they’ve been deleted from the system, or the darkness is too strong to pick out defining features. I think these were the men who attacked my friend.” Goro showed Akira the pictures, eyeing the date and time stamp: Last night, close to midnight. There were three men exiting an alleyway to a car, on foot, one in a white suit toting a gun. 

Akira looked back up at him and Goro continued, “Even with their faces, though, I’m at a standstill. I can’t do anything that would tip them off to my search, but I also can’t stop looking. I’ve asked my superior to see if any of their group are currently incarcerated. Less chance of being tipped off that way.” Akira nodded, stood, and came around the booth to stand next to him. Goro watched as Akira gently leaned down, caging him against his booth. Goro felt both… intimidated, but also warm. He was blushing, for sure, and warmth coiled in his gut at the feeling of Akira being so close. Akira said nothing, but he felt the other man’s breath on his cheek as he grasped the cat sleeping in his lap. Akira’s hands brushed Goro’s thighs in doing so, and Goro had to suppress the jolt that ran down his spine.  _ “Be careful, _ ” Akira whispered in his ear as he stood with Morgana and moved upstairs. 

Goro’s brain was too busy frying in his own skull to realize Akira was limping. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to do a little bit of world building and conflict setting in this chapter, and the two arcs both kinda ran away with me. This entire piece is creating a habit of doing that lol! I hope you enjoyed it, please let me know what you think! 
> 
> Until next time!
> 
> If you enjoy my work, and would like updates on when I post, please feel free to follow me on Tumblr! I am Pastel-Didactic (with a dash, not an underscore). :D


	3. Black Coffee, One Sugar

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I bet exactly zero people expected a chapter so soon lol! 
> 
> THIS CHAPTER HAS INCREASED OUR RATING TO M for descriptions of violence. There will be m o r e in the future, as well so this is more in warning from this point forward. 
> 
> Let me know what you think! Tschüss! :)

Akira paced, even though his side was screaming at him. Goro was going to get himself killed. He was scared to death that Goro would end up dead in an alley somewhere because he got involved with Kaneshiro. Goro was talented and intelligent, that was no secret, but he had no idea what he was getting himself into disturbing this particular hornet’s nest. Akira had come across them during a heist he’d performed for one of his teammates the previous week. Haru had been worried about her father’s business practices, and when Joker stole information off of Okumura Kunikazu’s computer, he’d found significant evidence that stated he was accepting money owned by offshore accounts that eventually filtered back around to Kaneshiro Junya. There were more names, dates, and a metric shitton of money that was being laundered through Okumura foods as they went through revenue purchasing supplies and cheaply made machines for the factories. Akira had given the data to Futaba to process, but she hadn’t yet finished. 

Now Goro was involved, and it seemed like this was his fault? If Akira hadn’t gone to Goro for help, he wouldn’t have decided to do this. But it also seemed as though Goro had been looking for them for a while- his whole department had- and perhaps this was just… now a personal reason. That personal reason being Akira getting shot wasn’t missed by the Phantom Thief. He felt warm and important to Goro, that such an attack on his person made Goro want revenge. But he shouldn’t have to worry about it- Akira is more than capable of handling this himself. Though, now that they were at this juncture, a unique opportunity presented itself for the two of them to potentially work together. He didn’t want his detective to get wrapped up in something so dangerous, but in all honesty, he couldn’t stop Goro even if he wanted. 

Coming to a decision, Akira decided to put his Joker garb into his bag and keep his promise to see Goro tonight. Honestly, he shouldn’t have sat with Goro and gone through his case with him. Goro had a little more than he did-- he had pictures, where as Akira only remembered their faces. Getting to Goro’s across the rooftops in his condition would be extremely slow going, so he decided to take the train to Goro’s neighborhood as Akira, then use the safe house he’d established in that district to change into his Joker outfit. 

Akira liked taking the train. He liked being around people, just being part of their daily routine. There was someone reading in the seat next to him, and a tired salaryman on the bench across from him. About a dozen other people filled the train car, some standing and holding onto the overhead straphangers to keep themselves stable, others sitting wherever they could find a seat. One girl had a puppy in her purse, and another was scarfing down food. Between stops, these people would come and go, and Akira simply watched them as he counted the stops to Goro’s town. These people all represented the people he was trying to help as Joker. His net of confidants stretched across Shibuya and beyond, and they all had a goal of working together to protect the everyday citizen from politicians and people with deep enough pockets to hurt them without them even knowing. 

Akira absolutely  _ loved _ what he did. He was  _ proud _ to be a Phantom Thief, and wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.

Getting off the train at the appropriate stop, Akira disappeared down several dark alleyways before locating an abandoned fast food restaurant with a dilapidated sign. He took out a worn key from his bag and pushed it into the tumbler at the bottom of the shutters, and pulled the shutters up to get inside the building. This restaurant was part of a chain that went bankrupt a year and a half ago. Haru bought them out and now these buildings serve as a network of hideouts all across Japan. They’ve come in handy during his career as Joker, and each one was stocked with medical supplies, food, water, clothes, and three futons. Every last one of his operatives use these hideouts when they’re moving across the country or are on missions. Having these was the greatest idea they’d ever come up with, and Akira was convinced he’d have crashed and burned without Makoto’s intelligence a  _ long _ time ago. 

Akira quickly changed into his costume. This was honestly his favorite part. By putting on this mask, he disavowed all others he’s ever worn. The fake glasses were pulled off to reveal his clear and alert eyes. His quiet demeanor fell away to confidence with squared shoulders and hands out of his pockets. Even his voice was more confident and authoritative when he became Joker. That was actually probably the only thing saving his ass with Goro. That was the only reason he could think of that Goro hadn’t found out just purely by virtue of his voice. 

Once the mask was on his face, he was Joker. As soon as he was all put together, Joker left his belongings here and exited the safehouse. He kept to the alleys as he made his way to Goro’s apartment. The complex was on a very quiet side of town, in a relatively peaceful neighborhood. A few cars were lined up outside the complex, no doubt owned by some of the renters. A small white car, a blue minivan, a black SUV. The last one he was a little more wary about, but the car appeared to be quite old, and had a parking pass hanging from the rearview mirror. A resident's van, then. Ascending the stairs of the fire escape, Joker looked up to Goro’s floor. He had the corner apartment on the third floor, and his living room light was on, signifying he was home. 

When Joker reached the window, he saw that Goro had his back to him. He was in his kitchenette, washing something in the sink. There was a full, large cup of water sitting on the counter, pushed back against the backsplash as if it had been sitting there for a while, and a bowl next to the glass. Reaching up with a gloved hand, Joker tapped at the glass of the window. Watching Goro jump was entertaining, and so was the pouty look the brunet gave him when he turned and saw it was Joker. Goro put down whatever he was holding and came over to the window. 

“You are insufferable,” Goro said by way of greeting and returned to his kitchen sink. “Well, good evening to you too, detective,” Joker chuckled. He slunk through the open window and closed it behind him. He sidled over to the kitchenette and looked over Goro’s shoulder. He was washing the glass bowl and rocks in his marimo terrarium. In the bowl next to him was his marimo, and this close Joker could see the marimo was actually quite large. Goro  _ tsk _ ed his tongue at him and huffed, “If you’re going to just stand there, make yourself useful.” He shoved the now clean glass sphere into Joker’s hands and filled it with the rocks while Joker held it steady. 

Something was bothering Goro, and he was taking it out on both Joker and the poor marimo. That was fine. If Goro wanted to talk about it, he would let Goro bring it up in his own time. He watched as the detective picked up the marimo carefully out of the bowl and examine the fat ball of algae. Deeming its health satisfactory, he gently placed the ball in the enclosure and filled it with room temperature water that was sitting in the extra glass, then capped it with the lid. Goro grabbed the white rope mesh netting he used to hang the terrarium in his room and Joker helped him settle the glass sphere inside the netting. After that, Goro took the whole thing from Joker without a word and went back into his room, presumably to hang the marimo back up in its spot by his cello. 

While Goro was gone, Joker occupied himself by observing Goro’s living space. His apartment was small, but lived-in and cozy. He had air plants in his kitchen along the L-shaped counter that separated the kitchenette from the living room space. He had that cream colored sofa he’d fallen asleep on the other night, his TV, and a recliner that looked as though he’d never used it. An idea was blooming in Joker’s head as he looked at the small table by the sofa. That table looked like it could use something… more. He’d have to make a trip out tomorrow… 

He’d helped himself and took a seat on the sofa, crossing his right leg over his left knee, arms crossed. When Goro came back, he shot the detective a sly smile, and the brunet looked at him, huffed, looked away, then looked back at him. Joker patted the space on the sofa next to him, and Goro seemed to deflate, “Oh, fine, dammit, I’ll tell you what’s bothering me.” 

Getting Akechi Goro to swear was the highlight of his days. 

“I went to see some of Kaneshiro Junya’s associates in prison this afternoon,” Goro began as he retrieved his medical kit from the cabinet under the sink and returned to Joker, tapping his legs with the kit. Joker had to move his legs from crossed to parted so Goro could sit on the table between his legs. Well, now. Here they are. “Take off the jacket and vest, please,” Goro murmured, and Joker set to that while Goro continued, “They told me exactly nothing important, and my superior is now inquiring why I wanted to speak with them. I  _ wanted _ to tell her it was none of her damn business, but she does have files on all of my existing cases. It would be easy to disprove any lie I told her.” Joker worked his vest off while Goro was talking, and he leaned up up a bit to get the clothes out from behind him. He smirked at the detective from his new position pretty close to his face and Goro rolled his eyes fondly. "Stop it. I'm trying to help you. Anyway, I'm sure my superior is going to keep asking about this until I tell her, and I can't exactly explain that the reason why is because you were shot. I'd be seen as aiding and abetting which, Kaneshiro's involvement aside, would at least see me arrested." 

Goro cut the bandages free to get at the stitches. The skin looked gross, pale and stretched, and there was crusted blood around the stitches, but all things considered he looked to be healing pretty well. Reaching into his kit, Goro pulled out some disinfectant and tried to clean up around the stitches as best as he could. "These stitches should be ready for removal by the end of next week, if not the end of this week. They look good." Goro smiled at him, a well and genuine smile, which blindsided Joker. "Yeah. Well. Doctor's orders," he joked lamely, which only seemed to make Goro smile even brighter. Joker could only stare as Goro decided to forego the wrap and instead peeled the adhesive off of a gauze pad and place it over the injury. "Just keep minding the stitches. The more it heals, the less likely it is to tear." Finished, Goro stood and stepped over Joker's leg to put the kit away. Joker stood to put his vest back on, and paused when he saw Goro yawning. 

"You look like you've had a long day." 

"Yes. It was long, and while I tried to be productive it was really just a goose chase. I'm being vividly reminded of why we haven't managed to arrest Kaneshiro yet." Joker hummed at Goro's response. There were about two or three options here. He could ask Goro to sit and relax with him, which would be cute. He could ask Goro if he wanted to team up on this case, but that may not be the best time for that right now. Or, last and probably least favored of the options, he could leave. Which, honestly, should probably be what he does. Goro needed his sleep and Joker had fulfilled his end of their initial promise. As it happened, he didn't need to decide anyway, because Goro had chosen for him. 

"Would you like to stay? Watch a movie with me?" 

He even looked like he wasn't sure why he asked. 

A swell of that emotion Joker didn't want to name filled his chest as he smirked, "Is this a date, detective?" 

Goro flushed, and Joker waited for the brunet to backtrack on his offer. Instead, what came out of his mouth was, "Not in the traditional sense, no. However, would it be so horrible for us to spend time together after a busy day? You're already here after all, aren't you? We both get so little time to ourselves- we have to take our chances when we can." 

It was almost like Joker  _ wasn't  _ on Japan's Most Wanted list and wasn't supposed to be hunted by the man before him. 

"Hm. Stealing a moment of peace? Count me in. You can choose the movie." 

That was how they ended up on the sofa, watching some action comedy film Goro had purchased from a streaming service. The movie was good; it was about a group of black operatives who disobeyed particularly bad orders to save a group of children and now hunted the man who issued the orders. However, Joker was far more entertained by the sleepy detective next to him. 

He'd watched Goro close his eyes and droop his head more than half a dozen times in the last twenty minutes. 

"Do you want to go to bed," Joker asked, "We can finish this some other time." Goro shook his head, "No, 'm awake. Just… stay." 

With that statement, Joker knew what this was all about. Goro just didn't want him to leave. He wanted to spend time with Joker in a setting where they didn't have to think about their rivalry. There was no Kaneshiro outside, kidnapping people and shooting thieves. There was no superior breathing down Goro's neck. The world was this tiny, quiet apartment in a respectable neighborhood and they were the only two people in the world. 

That feeling in Joker's chest he didn't want to name? It was love. 

Joker chuckled and gathered Goro in close, putting his arm over him and pulling him in to lean on Joker's left side, his head on Joker's shoulder. Pulling off his left glove, he buried that hand in Goro's soft hair and began gently scratching at his scalp. 

"I'll stay." 

Goro was sound asleep within the next five minutes. 

In his sleep, Goro dreamed of something that felt like coffee. Which was a weird statement, to be sure, but that was the best way to describe what he felt. The scent of strong coffee filled his nose, and he allowed his brain to dream up a scenario. In his dream, he was at Leblanc, nursing a fresh cup of coffee while a thunderstorm raged just outside the door. Goro looked down at his coffee, a simple black coffee with one sugar. His preferred brew. When he looked up, he saw Akira behind the counter, cleaning a cup. He greeted the barista, but received no response. Instead, thunder clapped outside loud enough to shake the building, and Goro looked down to make sure his coffee hadn't spilled. 

Lightning lit up the small cafe in blinding light, and this time when he looked back up to comment on the weather to Akira, his voice died in his throat. Akira was still standing there, still washing the now surely cleaned cup, but he looked different. The glasses on his face were broken, his face was bruised like he'd been in a fistfight, and his apron and shirt were torn to shreds. Spray painted in red across the front of the jars of beans behind the counter were five ominous words: 

_ YOU CAN'T HAVE ANYTHING NICE _

Goro stared at the words in horror, and when he looked back at Akira, he found the raven was gone.

He was replaced by Joker, who stared directly at him. 

He was riddled with bullet holes, the most prominent of which was a gunshot wound to his head, still bleeding from his forehead and down his face. 

Goro jolted awake with a scream to find he was alone in his apartment. Goro hyperventilated in a pitiful attempt at getting his heart rate to slow down, and when that didn't work he sat up to put his head between his knees. That was one of the worst nightmares he's had in an incredibly long time. 

Looking around his apartment, he found his TV was off as well as his lights, and Joker's jacket was draped over him like a blanket. The raven was nowhere to be found. The blue light of pre-dawn hours filtered in his window, illuminating yet another calling card on the coffee table. 

_ Goro, _

_ I was called out for a little while. I'm sorry, I didn't want to leave. I have left you with my jacket, and while I'm in no shortage of a spare, that one's my favorite. So, I'll return as soon as I can to claim it. I hope you'll consider working together with me to bring down Kaneshiro. I believe we will succeed if we work together. Let me know once you've come to a decision.  _

_ Pleasant dreams, _

_ Joker _

Goro rolled his eyes- of course he had more of these pompous coats. Curious, Goro looked into the pockets of the jacket. There were some basic thieving tools- lockpicks and the like. A smoke grenade. Some small dot that looked like a watch battery, extra calling cards with a pen. No weapons. A humble amount of miscellaneous items for the tools of the Most Wanted Thief in Japan. 

A strange scent caught in his nose, stemming from that black jacket. A… familiar scent. Pulling the jacket to his face, Goro buried his nose into the fabric and breathed in deep. 

Coffee. 

Joker's jacket smelled like Leblanc's coffee.

As one and one equaled two in his brain, all the parts and pieces of Joker's identity clicked into place, and realization struck him like a bolt of lightning.

_ Oh, he was a fucking idiot.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That van has the license plate of HAM because it's not the last time you'll see it in the story ;) 
> 
> (Can you tell what Pas has been watching these days?)
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and are all buckled in for the ensuing conflict. My evil laughter can be heard for miles! :D 
> 
> Until next time!


	4. Best Laid Plans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I'm still on a roll! 
> 
> This chapter is mostly plot, and has VERY LITTLE Akira/Goro interaction. The trade-off though is that next chapter is going to be mostly fluff. I just needed to get these plot points in place before continuing with the main conflict. 
> 
> This chapter is UNEDITED. I've also NEVER written an action sequence before this. Please let me know what you think. This chapter actually gave me a LOT of problems, and I wasn't optimistic that it sounded good enough to be posted, but I also felt that I stopped it at a good spot, given what's going to happen next. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter! 
> 
> Watch closely now~

That was the last time Akira had seen Goro in the last seven days. 

That day, when Akira took the fire escape off the roof of the building adjacent from Leblanc, he had the full intention of dropping off his newly acquired USB of stolen data and rushing back to Goro’s. He expected that, when he’d climbed down, he’d be met with the door with the “CLOSED” sign flipped facing the street, and absolutely nothing at all hanging from the menu board outside. 

He was wrong. 

Hanging from the menu board was his Phantom Thief jacket, which he had _ most definitely _left at Goro’s. On top of a sleeping Goro, if he remembered correctly. From that day until this one, Goro has been a ghost. 

Akira tried to stop by to check in, and he hasn't been home. He hasn't stopped by the cafe either, and Akira is beginning to worry. He had Futaba running checks on the CCTV cameras in the city looking for him, as well as keeping an eye on Kaneshiro's movements. Everything was fine until a couple days ago, when Kaneshiro began changing his meeting spots to different parts of town. His subordinates started incorporating a not insignificant amount of high school students into their employ, running drugs across town. They were having a hard time tracking them all. Neither Akira or Futaba have managed to nail down where their headquarters were, either, despite knowing many of their drug running routes. They change cars every day, and their routes through town to their destinations change so often Akira was glad they had as much as they did. 

But now? Kaneshiro was getting _ anxious _. Something was happening, and Akira would bet his entire career as Joker that the person behind it was Goro. 

It was the early afternoon of the seventh day without Goro, and Akira was working at Leblanc. The air felt thick with something, like the world was hanging on the tip of a needle. He felt like he needed to hold his breath for all of today, and for the life of him he couldn't figure out why. 

Until Futaba. 

At around 1:30PM, Futaba burst through the doors of the empty cafe and shouted, "Akira, _ turn on the tv right now! _" 

Akira dropped the rag in his hand and flicked on the TV from the remote behind the counter. 

"--Just tuning in, it appears the headquarters of drug cartel leader Kaneshiro Junya has been located, and a raid headed by the SIU was scheduled to begin at 1:25PM today." 

Akira's entire field of vision zeroed in on the screen. He found him. Goro found Kaneshiro. There was an aerial view of the compound, which just looked to be an old building that had been repainted. Several SIU cars were parked outside, and vans containing heavily armed officers were parked along the road in twos. The camera shifted to a live broadcast on the ground, where the newscaster had her back to the scene. 

In the background, talking into a walkie talkie, was Goro. He was wearing a bulletproof vest over his usual white button-up, an earpiece in his ear, and looked to be very much so in his element. He looked good. Tired, but good. Akira breathed a sigh of relief at the mere sight of his detective. At least he was okay. 

"We're broadcasting live in the middle of downtown Shibuya, where the raid was supposed to be underway. Early reports have stated that Kaneshiro has taken a hostage, which halted their movements just moments ago. Attempts to reach out to Kaneshiro have been met with silence, and authorities-"

Gunshots cracked in the background and suddenly everyone was ducking behind cars and vans. The reporter dove behind a car as an officer waved them off for their own safety. They ran far behind the cars and across the street, still reporting. "We have just been told to leave the premises, as Kaneshiro has opened heavy fire on the police. We'll deliver live reports as we can from a safe distance, but for now, this is Meguro Akiko, Shibuya Today." 

Akira’s heart was in his throat as soon as he heard the shots. 

_ Goro was there. _

"Futaba," Akira dashed from around the counter and up the stairs, changed into his costume, and headed back downstairs. Futaba had the foresight to bring her laptop, and as soon as Akira was back downstairs, she was on her laptop and rifling through her pockets. She thrust her balled fist in front of his path and handed him a tracking dot. "Take this. Yours is offline." 

Akira hummed in question and reached into his jacket's breast pocket. His old tracking dot was nowhere to be found. Not in the usual pocket, or the backup pocket, or anywhere within this jacket. He must have dropped it, or maybe it had fallen out when he used it as a blanket for Goro. Pressing the bottom and activating the online mode, Akira put the button back into his breast pocket. "Thanks, 'Taba," ruffling her red hair, the younger girl beamed up at him, "Go on! I'll keep an eye on the media reports and get you the floorplan of the building." 

Akira was so thankful his injury was mostly healed. According to Takemi, he was well enough to run, even fight if he had to resort to it. He was up on the rooftops and on his way in no time. 

Across town, Goro was ducked behind the corner of the building where Kaneshiro had his headquarters. He hadn’t expected the mobster to open fire on them while he still had his hostage. The hideout had been so close to downtown Shibuya, and therefore the precinct, this abandoned building would have been the _last _ place they would ever look. Which, in hindsight is entirely the point of a _ hideout _. Goro turned and jogged down the alley between this building and the next. His colleagues could keep Kaneshiro’s men busy. Someone had to get inside and at least get the hostage out of there. He had worked far too hard for this to let Kaneshiro get away now.

Goro had isolated himself in the office for this past week, researching Kaneshiro like a mad bloodhound, but also investigating the case against Akira. 

Suffice it to say, he didn’t like what he’d found, but he sure as hell expected it. 

In his search, Goro had found that Akira and he grew up in the same small town. The town was up in the country and known for its hot springs, which made it a popular meet up point for influential politicians. 

Like his father. 

Who had returned to their hometown last year for a business meeting, at which he got drunk, and attempted to assault a coworker on the street, when he was stopped by a young man.

Goro absolutely would _ not _ put it past his father to do such a thing. In fact, that sounded _ exactly _ like something he’d do. On top of all of that, Goro managed to get a hold of a couple financial statements from the businesses Kaneshiro was using to launder his money. Goro found that he was in league with the CEO of an international restaurant chain in this massive scheme. Kaneshiro was procure money through his illegal activities, and it was “invested” into the restaurant’s common stock, which would eventually be used and paid out to other investors, but the dividends would go to Kaneshiro as a stockholder, nice and squeaky clean. The chain gets a nice bump in revenue, and Kaneshiro gets legal millions. 

But just as Kaneshiro was acquiring the money, he was spending a good portion of it. Large chunks of the money were dispersed in equal amounts to seven different offshore accounts, bouncing around several countries before finally making a complete stop in an account owned by a company by the name of Ark of the Wealthy LLC. Which was just a bullshit name for an equally bullshit bank account that was owned by Shido. 

After that, all of the pieces began to come together. The potential depth of Shido’s corruption laid bare, and Goro had to figure out what to do with it. He knew what he _ wanted _ to do with it, but the problem was Shido could absolutely not know that Goro and Akira are working together. Goro had to come up with a way for one of them to catch Shido in the act, red-handed, without Shido knowing that they did this together. If Shido ever found out that Goro enlisted a vigilante’s help, he’d take Goro down instead to protect himself. What he wanted was for Shido to be arrested, and for the arrest to stick. 

Goro had a plan, but… His plan also required _ Akira _ not knowing about it. 

Kicking down a side door, Goro entered the building with his firearm firmly at the ready in front of him. The inside looked like an old textiles workshop. Some of the old machinery was still here, covered in dusty sheets. Goro moved swiftly with practiced stealth, clearing room by room. It seemed most of the gang members had converged on Kaneshiro’s room, or where there were windows facing the street. Goro made sure to stick to the walls and stay quiet, listening and waiting for his opportunity to move. Eventually, he found Kaneshiro, who had now moved into a separate room with the hostage. The hostage turned out to be a teenage boy, who looked like he wasn’t meant to be there and was obviously yanked off the street. Goro had to get the boy out of there, and he had to do it without alarming Kaneshiro. 

Luckily, that seemed to happen for him, and Kaneshiro’s attention was drawn to the window following a big banging sound. A flurry of voices rushed in, and the gangsters from the windows all scattered throughout the building. His colleagues had fought their way inside the complex. 

Either Kaneshiro was in a hurry, or he was simply incredibly stupid, and that played to their benefit. Kaneshiro did not bind his hostage, and so when Goro peeked his head into the room and motioned for the teen to come his way, he did. Thanking every higher power ever for their luck, Goro began to escort the hostage out of the building. Everything was working… too smoothly, if he were perfectly honest. This couldn’t be going better; at least, that was what he’d thought at the time. 

Until they turned the corner and came face-to-face with four armed gangsters. Goro pushed the hostage behind cover as they opened fire, using his body to shield the boy. They soon stopped firing, presumably to reload, or get closer, or both. Goro looked around for a way out that didn’t also lead back around to Kaneshiro, when he heard the men shouting, taking off down the hall towards something else. Maybe one of the SIU officers. Goro peeked his head out and saw their way was clear, so he grabbed the boy by the arm and took off down the hall. They made it to a set of stairs, and Goro looked over the edge of the stairs to make sure no one was going to catch them going towards the exit. 

Finding no one, Goro took the boy down the stairs. The door they’d just passed through suddenly slammed open, and then closed again as they were halfway down the stairs. Goro tucked them against the corner of the landing, waiting with anticipation. Anxiety felt thick between the two of them, just waiting there as the steps got louder and closer by the second. The steps slowed as they came to their hiding place, and a quiet voice whispered into the silence. 

“Goro?” 

Goro sighed loudly in relief and came out from their hiding spot. Joker was around the corner, and he let out an equally loud sigh of relief at the sight of the detective in one piece. It was the first time they’d seen each other in a week, which honestly felt more like an eternity. Initially, he was happy to see Joker standing there, looking at him with absolute relief. But then he just felt angry. Or perhaps a high level of frustration. Or even both. “What the _ fuck _ are you doing here!? Every cop in Japan is bearing down on this place. You need to get out!” 

“I was watching the news when the shootout started. What did you expect me to do? Watch you get shot?” 

“No! But this is dangerous, you could get arrested if any of my colleagues even see you, and I am _ not _ stitching up another bullet hole in you. You are absolutely _ insufferable _ -” More gunfire sounded from the top floor and Goro sighed, “We don’t have time to talk about this. I have to get this boy out of here- we’re heading to the exit. Then I’m coming back in.”   
  
“Goro, I am _ not _ leaving you here to-”   
  
“ _ I have to, Joker. _ I have to be here for the arrest. You… I’m _ so glad _ to see you, but… You’re the most wanted thief in Japan, in the middle of an SIU raid. You need to go. If one of the SIU officers find you here, or gods forbid one of my superiors, _ I cannot stop you from getting arrested _. Do you trust me?” 

Joker didn’t even hesitate, “Yes.” 

“Then trust me, leave this to me, and meet me later.” 

They had to go. He had to drop off the hostage with his colleagues outside, and Joker absolutely had to leave before any of the law enforcement officers noticed he was here. But that… wasn’t going to stop Goro. He reached up and brushed his gloved fingers along Joker’s cheek. “Please, just do this for me? I would prefer you aren’t arrested.” Joker simply nodded, leaning his face into Goro’s hand, “I will. I can’t say I won’t cause a little mayhem before I leave, though.” 

Goro laughed, “I wouldn’t expect anything less,” and stepped away from the thief. “Be careful,” he said, turning to the hostage and gesturing for them to keep going. He waited until the two of them had opened the door onto the first floor, before turning to the hostage with the best, most terrifyingly pleasant Made-For-TV smile he could produce, “And you didn’t see any of that.” 

“Uh. Yeah. I dunno what you’re talking about.” 

“Hm. Good.” 

When Goro had safely delivered the hostage into Shibuya PD hands, he went back into the building. He had to regroup with his colleagues and incapacitate Kaneshiro. Apparently, when Joker said, “a little mayhem,” he meant, “A little chaotic mayhem that is beneficial to neither party, but is generally little tiny bullshit moves that ruins everyone’s day.” 

Meaning: He cut the power. 

Goro immediately covered his face with his free hand and sighed heavily into his leather glove. That man was absolutely the worst. Well, he supposed the police were equipped with flashlights, and no power would make Joker’s escape easier… but still. It’s the principle of the matter. Eventually, he found the SIU and they converged on Kaneshiro’s location together. What amazed Goro is that the other officers didn't even ask where he'd been. They'd just assumed he'd hung back until they were finished clearing out the first floor. That actually seemed extremely suspicious to Goro, but he had no choice but to put that aside for now. Arresting Kaneshiro came first, and he'd rather arrest him with a group of officers instead of trying to storm Kaneshiro's office himself, without backup.

Goro wasn’t sure what he’d expected out of the mob boss, but finding him cowering behind the couch in his room, clutching a briefcase full of counterfeit bills was definitely not what he expected. Kaneshiro was arrested and taken into custody with zero fuss. Goro got credit for the arrest, and his name was plastered on national news within the same sentence as “Kaneshiro,” and, “arrested.” 

Exactly as he’d wanted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So initially this chapter was going to be twice as long as chapter 2, but then I remembered I was doing CHAPTERS and not a giant one shot, sooooo I broke it up into two. 
> 
> But the good news to that means that Chapter 5 will likely be out tomorrow! And all the fluff that comes with it, up until it's no longer fluff. 
> 
> Potentially ;) 
> 
> Until next time!


	5. The Three Dot Monte

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoof this is late. I'm sorry! 
> 
> So, just a head's up, I'm going to be participating in Shuake week, which is in like. Two weeks. So I MIGHT be a little slow updating simply because I'm developing plots for my submissions. 
> 
> This chapter is ALSO UNEDITED. Please let me know what you think!
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter! There's fluff, there's anxiety! There's violence! So this story is absolutely NOT as angsty as my other works, and even then Letters from Home had a happy ending. But it's gonna skirt that line a lil. Starting right here. Buckle up! 
> 
> I also hope you've been watching closely~

Later that night, Joker looked up from the street to Goro's window. His light was on, and the window was open in invitation. Joker would be lying if he said he wasn’t nervous. There was absolutely no way Goro hadn’t figured him out by now. He knew to drop the coat off at Leblanc, after all. When they met at Kaneshiro's complex, he was glad Goro didn't immediately try to shoot him, or just ignore him outright. Instead, he touched his cheek. That was encouraging, if nothing else. 

But now the moment of truth had come, and Joker was finding himself hesitating. 

After a moment of trepidation, standing there on Goro’s fire escape, Joker finally ducked under the window frame. He found Goro leaning against the kitchenette counter, arms crossed. He'd been waiting for him, then. Joker stood in Goro's living room, suddenly at a loss for words. He felt his confidence fading, and his Joker-like personality gave way to his masked shyness. He put his hands in his pockets, a very Akira motion, and Goro  _ tsk _ ed. "None of that," he said softly, crossing the room to carefully take Joker's hands from his pockets and hold them in his own. Akira watched him do this, and then continued to stare at their hands.

"... What gave me away?" 

It was a question that took up all the remaining space in the room. The room was thick with every second that passed, waiting for Goro's response. The brunet only chuckled, and reached up with a bare hand to cup the side of Joker's face, much like he did at the complex. Joker didn't breathe. He didn't move. If he did, if he moved the wrong way or took in too deep a breath he would ruin this moment with the noise. Goro's thumb slipped just under his mask, teasing his cheekbone with a careful caress. 

"This quality… does it ever break?" 

"No, but it has cracked once. One of my associates is an artist. He had to make me a new one." 

It was strange, talking about this with Goro. He knew this was a conversation they were going to have at some point, but he never imagined it going like this. 

"I don't know how I didn't notice sooner," Goro breathed into the tense silence, pushing softly up at the mask on Joker's face. The action was slow, deliberate. Joker had all the time in the world to stop him. 

Joker didn't move.

"I guess I just kept you two separate in my mind. I suppose it was a name I just didn't want to put to it? And when I figured it out, I just… Needed time. Not to necessarily accept the fact- I think a part of me has always known. But I felt like I needed to finish off Kaneshiro before I addressed what to do with… this. When we first met, I felt like I had a duty to arrest you. Vigilantism is illegal, after all. But this week I realized that, after a while, it all became just so silly." Goro had lifted the mask off his face at this point, taking care to sit it on the side table next to them. 

Akira held his breath, but there was no need. When Goro looked back up at him, he simply beamed. "There you are," the fondness in his voice made Akira's heart swell.

Finally encouraged to move, Akira brought his hands up to rest on Goro's hips. "Hey," he smirked, Joker's flirtatious smirk on Akira's face. Goro flushed at him, but laughed it off, "You're unbelievable." 

"So I've been told by most forms of law enforcement."

Goro laughed at that, knowing that Akira was alluding to him and his colleagues. Neither of them commented on how close they were. Neither wanted to ruin the gentle intimacy. They both felt as though every moment led up to this one. Every flirt, every heist, every time Goro has let Akira get away, and every time Akira has left evidence against real criminals for Goro to find. Akira would be shot again before he admitted that his thumbs were gently, slowly drawing up and down on Goro's hips, and Goro absolutely did not comment on that and how it made his heart stutter in his chest.

The moment was too fragile to say one word about it.

"So, what was it?" Joker was genuinely curious, as he'd gone for so long without detection, and he really wanted to know how Goro had managed to figure him out within two instances of prolonged close contact. 

"Coffee." 

That took Akira by surprise, "It was what, now?" 

"You smell like coffee. Leblanc's coffee, specifically. It's in your hair, and on your clothes." 

Oh. Well now he felt stupid. Joker was usually good at keeping his jacket washed and tended to, but it made sense that the scent of Leblanc, powerful as it was, attached to everything. It was likely even in his hair. "How didn't you notice when you were making sure I didn't die in your kitchen?"

The bubble of intimacy popped as Goro stuttered, abashed and flustered, "You were  _ dying in my kitchen _ , Akira! How did you expect me to react? I wasn't focusing on how you  _ smelled _ ." Akira nodded, chuckling. That was reasonable, all things considered. Taking a deep breath, Akira braced himself before he asked the question that had been on his mind for most of the night: 

"Are you gonna turn me in, detective?" 

Goro blinked at him. "Am I going..," Goro's brow furrowed, "Look, I'm aware of what I should do, and  _ yes _ , I  _ should _ arrest you. I should have arrested you a week ago, but why? Because society has determined that our freedoms should rest in the hands of designated people, and our right to speak up for ourselves is only conditional upon when we  _ vote _ ? Fuck that!" 

In his fervor, Goro had stepped away from Akira. He gestured animatedly with his hands, and Akira watched as he filtered through all the reasons why Joker shouldn't be arrested. A small smile crossed his lips and he tried to get in closer. His detective was being too adorable, and it made Akira's heart swell with love. Perhaps it was time to address at least a little of that, too, now that the cat was out of the bag?

“When a government official holds too much power, isn’t it the people’s responsibility to act? This system is fucking broken- corrupt officials corrupt absolutely, and having a roomful of dirty politicians doesn’t make a society, it necessitates people like you to stand up and defend a society that can no longer defend itself! And it’s not like  _ we _ can do anything, we have to put in requests  _ for our requests _ . We’re buried under so much goddamn red tape we can barely move! So why, then, Akira, should I feel compelled to arrest you, when-” 

Goro stopped his rant and the waving of his arms as he defended his reasoning for  _ not _ arresting Akira, because a certain Phantom Thief had gotten incredibly close to him, and was now holding Goro’s face in his hands. His face was  _ very _ close… 

“... When you do more in one heist than most of my colleagues accomplish in a month?” Goro had lowered his voice so he wasn’t yelling at Akira anymore, and honestly he didn’t want to pop this bubble Akira had made for them, so close together. “And… That’s how you knew to find those photos… during that kidnapping case, in April?”    
“You were so tired. I knew you wouldn’t rest until you found that girl. We had been keeping an eye out on that group, waiting for an opportunity to get evidence against them. I had no idea they had moved on to worse crimes until you told me.” 

“You…" Goro seemed to be at a loss for words. Akira watched him measure the weight of all the things they'd done for each other, even just to get to this point. Ever since Joker appeared, bleeding and exhausted on his front step, their dance had become more of a waltz. They had been tending towards this state for two years. Two years worth of heists, close calls, and calling cards with little gifts attached. They continually gravitated towards one another, culminating in this very moment. 

"What are we doing, Akira?” He breathed Akira's name like a hymn, and the thief knew he was lost.

Akira was quiet for a moment before he asked him, “Do you trust me?” 

Goro didn’t even have to think before he responded, “ _ Yes _ .” 

Akira pulled Goro in and captured his lips in a kiss. 

Goro’s entire world fell away to the softness of those lips. His russet eyes slipped closed and he reached up, his left hand slipping under the jacket to rest on Akira’s chest. The other hand buried in Akira’s hair, tugging him closer. Akira wrapped his arms around the very slightly taller man and licked a line across the seam of his lips. Goro shuddered, surrendering with a soft sigh. He opened his mouth to Akira, allowing the other to slip his tongue against his own. 

It felt like Akira’s lips were on fire, searing into his own, igniting an equally hot fire in Goro's belly that craved more. Akira hummed against his lips and Goro pulled him closer. He felt like they couldn’t get close enough to satisfy him. Akira’s hands had dropped to his hips, the tip of his thumb teasing just under the hem of his shirt. Goro made a soft whine as they broke apart for air, and Akira smirked at him with pink, glistening lips, and just as he began to descend for another kiss-

Goro’s cell phone rang. 

Oh. Right. Shido. 

Sighing heavily and dropping his forehead against Akira’s chest, several horrible variables added together in Goro’s head as he remembered his plan. Couldn’t he just… not answer? Would it be so bad? If he just… didn’t pick up the phone? Actually… it might be better if he didn’t. 

“Are you going to get that,” Akira asked softly, refusing to relinquish Goro from his arms until the other man requested. “Do I have to?”    
“No. You don’t.” 

Goro nodded, but extracted himself from Akira’s hold anyway. He walked over to his phone, and after a moment of hesitation, silenced the phone without answering. 

Everything hinged on his plan.

“Oh, right! Akira, you left this here last week,” Goro picked up the little device off his counter that looked like a watch battery and showed it to the raven. “I’d figured it was somewhere here,” Akira nodded, making his way over to Goro to claim his dot. Goro beat him to it, opening Akira’s jacket and tucking the dot into his inside breast pocket. Akira eyeballed the intimate gesture and quirked a brow. Goro used the same hand that opened Akira's jacket to pull him in for another kiss, this one short and full of promise. 

"I need to sleep, Akira. You should go home for now." 

Akira's eyebrow further climbed up his forehead, curious now. "Sending me away so soon?" 

Goro rolled his eyes, "For the night. I'm exhausted, and I still have paperwork to file for Kaneshiro." 

While he was in the middle of deceiving Akira a little, this was true. He did have paperwork that had to be emailed to Sae before his plan was set into motion, and he had precious little time in which to accomplish that. The most important thing was Akira leave, quickly. He had to stay away from here, to stay safe. To his great relief, Akira nodded. "Can I visit you tomorrow?" Goro had to laugh at that, "Akira, when have you  _ ever _ asked to visit me? I'll leave the window unlocked." 

Grabbing his mask off the side table where Goro placed it, he put it back on to assume the role of Joker once again. Tilting his head up a bit, he placed a kiss on Goro's forehead, then slipped silently out of his window into the night. 

Goro sighed as he looked down at his left hand and unfurled it to reveal Akira's spare tracking dot. 

He hoped Akira would forgive him for this. 

Joker was practically soaring above the streets as he made his way home. He'd kissed Goro- and he wasn't slapped for it! He'd held off for so long, trying not to assume that Goro's overall positive responses to his flirting were signs of reciprocation. Turns out, all he had to do was talk to him. He supposed there was something to that adage about honesty and policies after all. 

Joker dropped into his room via his open window and wandered over to his desk. The dots needed to be charged, and the dot he left at Goro's was likely dead by now. Sitting down at his workbench, he opened his laptop and pulled out the USB charging port Futaba had given him for the dots. Reaching into his breast pocket, he picked out the two dots in his possession, and one by one, put them on the charger.

One of them blinked steadily, the proper indication that it was charging.

The other one did nothing. 

Pulling off his mask, Akira picked up the nonfunctional dot and brought it close enough to his face to examine. 

In his hand was an actual watch battery. 

That didn't make sense. Goro showed him the dot when he put it in his pocket, and the dot Futaba gave him was actually her dot. They were both actually their tracking dots. Unless…

_ Goro. _

Like a shot, Akira took back off into the night, forgetting his own dot on the charger. That didn't matter- Futaba tracked his phone, too. The dot was only for extreme circumstances where their phones were damaged or had no service. He had barely remembered to pick up his own mask in his haste. What the hell was his detective thinking? Why did he need to switch out dots? What was happening!? He thought of Kaneshiro, and of the money scandal that the Thieves had uncovered for Haru. Could they be connected with something else? Something bigger, and more dangerous? Where did Goro fit? 

Pieces of the puzzle were missing, and possible connections buzzed in his head as he raced across the rooftops, though each one was admittedly even worse than the last. Once at Goro's, he couldn't believe that such damage could have been done in just under two hours. 

The lamp in the living room was on the floor, its light blinking as the bulb was loosened. The coffee table was overturned. The potted air plants were broken on the floor. An eerie silence pervaded the space. " _ Goro! _ " Akira called out, but he got the response he expected:

Silence. 

Moving down the hall, Akira went to Goro's room, where he found even more damage. His cello was knocked over, the neck broken and held only by its strings. The marimo bowl was torn down, destroyed on the ground. But it was the floor in front of Goro's desk that set a chill down his spine and sent him sprinting back out towards the window.

There was a _lot_ of blood on the floor. 

Akira had a sinking feeling, a horrible feeling. Sure enough, when he got to the window overlooking the street and looked down at the line of cars outside, the black SUV from earlier was gone. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pas offers no apologies. Pas looks on in silence, staring blankly at the long, dangerous road ahead. 
> 
> Until next time! <3


	6. Skipped Beat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY EVERYONE BUCKLE UP This is where it gets pretty real. 
> 
> WARNING: I have edited the tags to reflect this, but there is now a situation in which a character is drugged. Also, this chapter kinda chips the surface of Shido's abuses against Goro, and this does also reflect that. If this makes you uncomfortable, I'm so sorry, and maybe skip this chapter. 
> 
> I'd like to take this time to thank Prompt_Master for listening to me ramble about plot points and go over some various ideas for this chapter. You're the absolute greatest!

Goro had just closed his laptop when they came for him. They didn’t even knock, just kicked in his door. Goro stood from his desk and turned around to face the door just as they found him. Before him stood a burly man with short dark hair and tattoos. He knew this man. He lived on the same floor as Goro. So this was the one Shido had installed to spy on him. Goro grimaced at him by way of retaliation. If this was going to happen, he had to put up a fight. 

“Can I ask why you’ve broken into my home?” Not like he didn’t already know the answer, but for his plan to work, he had to play a little bit of a fool. 

“Shido-san has requested your presence. I’m here to collect you.” Goro snorted, crossing his hands over his chest, “I don’t answer one phone call, and he sends the _ Yakuza _? That’s a bit much, don’t you think?” 

He should have expected the punch. 

The man’s sizable fist collided with his jaw and Goro actually lost his footing. He fell down to the ground, landing on his ass with a loud thud. Well, that was something, and now Goro was pissed. It was bad enough Shido had sent this man into his home with the goal of kidnapping him. Now, he was getting violent. Goro absolutely would not sit there and let this man brutalize him, or let Shido believe he’d just follow this man willingly _ anywhere _ . The sheer audacity. Something inside Goro snapped, and some deep, unhinged desire to _ fight back _ pulled up to the forefront of his psyche.

Goro growled as he picked himself up off the floor, and Shido’s hitman leaned over him, “Shido-san requests your presence. If you won’t come willingly, I have means to incapacitate you.” Oh, so he was _ that _ kind of enforcer. The brute force type. He could work with that. 

Goro launched himself at the enforcer, landing a solid hit on the other man’s jaw to pay back for his own sore face. Ducking low, he rammed his entire body weight into the man’s stomach, forcing him to stumble backwards and grab the door frame for purchase. “Get the _ fuck _ out of my house,” Goro growled, “and tell Shido I’m no longer his toy!”

The bigger man swung into him and punched him in the stomach. He felt his bottom left ribs give way under the pressure, and Goro coughed with the pressure. He slumped to the ground, unable to catch his breath, when the larger man’s boot collided with his body, sending him on his back. His nose was bleeding, his head was bleeding, he couldn’t breathe, and he had broken ribs. But Akechi Goro wasn’t done. Not yet. As the larger man hovered over him, rifling through his pockets for something, Goro kicked upwards, nailing the Yakuza straight in the balls with as much force as he could manage. The enforcer doubled over to the side and tried to catch his own breath, and Goro used this opportunity to roll onto his stomach and try to leverage himself to stand. 

His strength was nearly depleted, and he had a hard time getting his legs to agree, when the other man’s boot came back down onto his spine, forcing him face down onto the hardwood floor. Goro fell with a shout, and he felt a prick in the side of his neck. 

The world tipped, and the ground felt as if it pulled out from under him into some nameless void, and Akechi lost consciousness. 

Thirty minutes later, Akira was frantically pressing the speed dial button on his phone, begging Futaba to pick up the other line. Thunder rumbled in the distance, signaling a heavy thunderstorm on the horizon. 

The other side rang. 

Akira held his breath, begging every god that would listen. Every higher being that could possibly hear the thoughts of one desperate human. 

Ring. 

Futaba never waited this long to pick up the phone! Could it be she was busy? Could it be she was helping another thief? 

Ring. The thunder rolled, not a mile away, and closing in fast. 

This felt like it was taking ages, and the longer Futaba took to answer, the more Akira began to panic. Goro was missing, something was going on, and he could be in serious danger. If ever there was a time for Futaba to be away from her computer, why did it have to be _ now _!? There was a telltale dip in the line, and a little bit of faint white noise before: 

“Helllloooooo Joker!” 

“Oh, thank god,” Akira breathed, relief washing over him before he sprung back into action, “Oracle, can you pull up Polaris? Are there any dots active right now?” Polaris was a software Futaba had invented to track their GPS dots, which she _ also _ invented. That’s how they got to be so small and effective. A Polaris dot is accurate within one foot anywhere on Earth. The caveat was that they had a shorter battery life, and had to be powered on before they were detected by her software. So the Phantom Thieves only used them if they absolutely needed to, in extreme situations. 

Futaba paused, “Okay… I’m showing no dots. Joker, what’s going on?”   
  
“Long story short? Goro stole one of my dots, he’s been kidnapped, and I think he might be in trouble! I have to find him, Oracle!” 

“Shit! Okay, hold on, I’ll pull up CCTV.”   
  
“It’s been _ hours _ \- He could be anywhere! Look for a black SUV, parked outside the complex!” Akira paced on the rooftop of the building now, just waiting for instructions on where to go. Goro could be anywhere in the city, and Shibuya was a big place. He couldn’t lose him- he couldn’t. Not now, not after they’d finally acknowledged that they _ had _ something! 

“I see him,” Futaba’s voice cut through the phone and Akira wanted to weep. 

“Which way?” 

“Northeast! It looks like they’re taking him back to the manufacturing district where Kaneshiro’s complex was. And he… he doesn’t look good. The guy that brought him out was carrying him. He’s unconscious.” 

“I’ll get him back.” Akira was already taking off across the rooftops, using his bluetooth earpiece to stay in contact with his phone. He was thankful the earpiece was waterproof, because right as he started gaining speed, the rain began to fall. 

“This is that guy, isn’t it? The detective that’s been chasing you? The one you’ve been crushing on circa forever?” 

“Yeah,” Akira confirmed, frantically searching for that SUV or any sign of Goro as he moved across the rooftops. He knew it was irrational, that Goro couldn’t possibly be so close, but still. Looking around for him kept his mind off the fear that he would be too late. Futaba said nothing more, but Akira could hear her typing on the other end. 

Akira was halfway across town, drenched from the rain. He could see Kaneshiro’s hideout in the distance, when Futaba all but screamed at him, “_ Joker, turn around now! _” 

“What?” 

“Polaris picked up the dot! _ It’s active _! You’re going the wrong way!” 

About three miles from where Akira was, Goro groaned as consciousness came back to him. Lightning lit up his surroundings, and he found he was in the back of a parked SUV. A storm raged outside, the rain pattering on the roof of the car. The sound would be relaxing to Goro and his extremely tired body, provided he wasn’t in the process of being kidnapped. Reaching into his pocket, with slow movements and a sore body, Goro pressed on the bottom of the dot he had, looking down to make sure it was lit up green. He carefully slid one heavy arm out, dot between shaking fingers, and hid the dot behind the passenger seat, in the dip where the chair connected to the floorboard. Akira could find him, now. 

Hopefully in time. 

His body ached all over, and his skin burned. They’d given him something. Something that made his limbs heavy and his head ache. Goro couldn’t really move. He couldn’t stand or even roll onto his back or stomach. He was just stuck there, on his side in the fetal position, in absolute agony while he listened to the rain. 

The back doors of the SUV opened to reveal the enforcer from before, sporting a bruised face and a limp. Good. Let no one ever say Akechi Goro wasn’t scrappy. The man grabbed him by his ankle and pulled him out of the car, dropping him onto the ground with a thud. His broken ribs jostled and he groaned, curling inwardly again against the pain. 

“Get him up.” 

Oh good. Shido was here. The enforcer came around behind him and lifted him up by the arms to stand. When it was discovered Goro couldn’t stand without help, the enforcer dropped him down onto his knees. Goro opened his eyes to find headlights searing into his vision, brights on and merciless. Goro put up an arm before his face, so he could see Shido standing in front of him, arms crossed and livid. 

“Do you have any idea what busting Kaneshiro cost me?” 

“Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of dirty money,” Goro replied, venomous, and Shido slapped him hard across the face. 

“How _ dare _ you? How dare you, after everything I’ve ever done for you! I’ve housed you, fed you, clothed you, _ raised you _ , and this is how you thank me? You use the reputation _ I _ built for you to arrest _ my _ associates? That money was going to win me my election!” Shido roared, ranted, and raved, bending down to put himself within inches of Goro’s bruised face. His voice rang so loudly in that alley that his eardrums threatened to burst in his head. 

Something inside Goro had snapped. 

He had lived through enough of this. 

“_ Fuck you _.” 

The entire world went silent as those words tore from his lips. Even the rain seemed to silence in its deluge. The sound of the planet muted against his rage, and Shido couldn’t believe what he had heard. Shido’s voice came low, threatening, and dangerous as he approached Goro again, bending down to meet his eyes.

“Excuse me..?”   
  
“You heard me! Fuck you! You’ve kept me all my life, like I’m some kind of burden to you, only good enough to pass off later as some kind of success story! Fuck that! You don’t give a rat’s ass about me beyond what good I can do for you! You can keep that shit to yourself! I don’t need you, I don’t need the abuse, I don’t need you fucking breathing down my neck and having me stalked through my life like some variable you can control! You didn’t do _ shit _ for me. My grades were something _ I _ earned! My career is _ mine _ ! My life was something _ I _ made for myself, and I refuse to let you take the credit for it anymore! Yes, I took down your dirty fucking lackey. I’m making my own justice, and I’m deciding what’s the truth! I’m going to systematically take _ all of you down _ , the _ right way _ , without resorting to bribes and back alley deals. I’m going to do it for myself, and I’m going to do it for mom! So you know what? You can take that fucking election of yours and _ shove it up your goddamn ass _!” 

It was like a cork had been pulled on all the frustration he’d felt his entire life. It was _ liberating _, just yelling at Shido and telling him exactly how he felt. It was… freedom. Honest to god freedom.

Of course, Shido punched him in the face for it, but Goro didn’t regret it. 

Goro dropped to his side with the force of the punch and Shido shook his head at him, “I guess this is what I get for allowing you to make your own friends. I should have had that thief killed when I had the chance.” 

“What..?”   
  
“Do you honestly think I wasn’t aware of your little love affair with the Phantom Thief Joker? My sources would tell me every time you came back from _ failing _ to arrest him. I was also informed of the time he sought you out for help.” 

So Shido knew… He knew this entire time. _ Fuck _. 

That was when Goro realized he was going to die here.

“Kaneshiro was useful in that he always wanted my approval. He would do or say anything to keep me happy, so when I asked him to take the fall for me… he gladly agreed. What he didn’t do, however, was kill the Phantom Thief like I’d ordered. Instead, he let the two of you meet up, and the two of you essentially brought down Kaneshiro together. When the power was cut, I was unable to inform Kaneshiro of his next steps. So now he’s rotting away in jail, where I can’t touch him without looking like a sympathizer. The both of you together are a danger to my election. My success. And you have outlived your usefulness. Were you hoping your precious Joker was going to swing in and save you? By this time tomorrow, he’ll be dead. And so will you.” 

Akira was closing in on the location of the dot. In fact, he was just a block away, when he heard it. 

A single crack rang through the night, louder than thunder. 

Akira felt his entire heart drop with full force to his feet, and he stumbled off of the fire escape, landing unceremoniously on the closed lid of a dumpster. Hissing from the impact, Akira slid off the bin and into the alley just in time to see a black SUV and another black Cadillac take off into the night. 

“Joker, the dot is moving! It’s going down the street from you!” 

Akira ran into the street and down towards the alley where the cars came from, praying. He slid on the wet sidewalk and dashed down the alley. 

“Joker! What are you doing- they’re getting away!” 

No. 

Oh no. Oh gods, please no. 

Laying on the ground in the alley, curled into a fetal position, was Akechi Goro. Blood bloomed under his body, washed away by the rain just as it escaped from under him. Akira dropped to his knees and turned Goro over, to find a gruesome gunshot wound in his abdomen. He clamped a hand down on the injury, assessing the other wounds. Thanking the gods there was nothing else vitally struck, Akira checked his pulse. 

He was still alive, but only just.

“Futaba,” Akira’s voice cracked, the lack of codename more so alarming the girl than making her want to chide him for it, “I need an ambulance! Right now! Goro’s been shot.” 

“Calling them now! Joker, they’ll arrest you. You can’t stay.” 

“I don’t care! I’m not going to leave him here to die!” 

“Look, I’ll call Queen, she’s closest, but you have _ got _ to get out of there! You have to go after that dot before it dies, and we lose the attackers for good.” 

Akira hated how much sense that made. He absolutely hated that she was right. Goro’s weight in his hands felt heavier by the second, and he tucked the detective close to him. Goro made a small noise in his unconscious state, and his heart was breaking in his chest. He placed a kiss on Goro’s wet and filthy forehead, cradling him as if the contact alone would miraculously heal him. 

“Don’t let Akechi’s last conscious action go to waste, Akira. We don’t know if we’ll ever find them again if we lose them now.” 

“... As soon as Queen gets here.” 

Futaba paused, a small sigh leaving her, “Okay. The EMTs are on their way. Queen is three minutes out.” 

Akira clung to Goro, keeping pressure on his wound, and sobbed into Goro’s bloody hair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry I love you all
> 
> If it helps, this was the worst of it? 
> 
> Maybe?


	7. Intermezzo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHOOF THIS WAS ALMOST LATE GUYS
> 
> WARNING: This chapter has a part in it that talks about one of Joker's earliest heists, and the crime the target committed was possession of child pornography and sexual assault of several minors. No evidence is actually described in detail, but I wanted to warn you guys before the chapter started just in case. 
> 
> THIS CHAPTER LITERALLY WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN POSTED TONIGHT IF NOT FOR THE ABSOLUTELY LOVELY PROMPT_MASTER. I would have crashed and burned without you listening to my ramblings, for real.

Goro sat at his desk in the precinct, working on a case file. This one was a robbery that turned into a major traffic accident, and Goro had been staring at the initial reports for so long the words were beginning to swim across the page. He sat his pen down for what had to have been the fourth time in that hour and leaned back in his chair. Sometimes he wondered why he did this. Why he chose this profession. In a way, it was chosen for him by Shido, but Goro really excelled at it. He enjoyed helping people, and doing the right thing. He honestly felt like he was in his element here, which ultimately was what led him to choose to stay. 

Goro leaned his head over the back of his chair, which bent with his weight. He could _ break _ the computer chair this way, potentially, but Goro was too tired to care. There was a cafe near here that Sae recommended highly. Perhaps he should give them a visit to caffeinate. 

Sae poked her head into his office, which he witnessed happen nearly upside down, “What are you doing,” she asked, a finely crafted eyebrow quirking up at him. Goro sat up in his rolling chair and turned to face her, “Contemplating life choices. How can I help you?” 

“New case. Serial robbery. No item of import is actually stolen, but the thief goes after data.”  
  
“So, corporate espionage?”  
  
“Not every target is a businessman. We aren’t even sure what he wants. He just takes this data and gives it to authorities. Each wealthy person attached to the data he brings us are arrested and convicted of everything from embezzlement to conspiracy to commit murder.”  
  
Goro hummed, crossing his arms across his chest, “So he’s a vigilante? Why give this case to me?” 

Sae rolled her eyes, holding out the manila folder in her hand, “That’s what I said, but the director insisted this case go to you. Something about your fame. The rest of the department thinks it’s a joke.” 

Goro sighed heavily and took the file Sae handed him, “A joke? Really?”  
  
“No one has been able to catch this guy. He’s committed three other heists without leaving a single piece of evidence behind. We don’t even know his name.” 

Oh perfect. That was just great. Goro opened the folder and skimmed through some of the cases before looking back up at Sae with a withered expression, “So you’re sending me after a ghost. A phantom.” All Sae could do was reply with a noncommittal shrug, and head back to her desk. Pushing aside the traffic accident case, Goro set to work reading the contents of the file. 

According to the file, all the authorities knew about the thief was that he was a black-haired male, lean build, 5’9”, in a black cloak. If Goro had been told of this man in casual conversation, he would have thought he was being told a joke. That profile was _ all _ that was in the file pertaining to the perpetrator. The rest of the data was about his victims. A CEO, two government officials (at once!), and the head of a multi-billion dollar corporation's IT department. This thief didn’t do anything by halves, it seemed. At every crime scene, CSI swept for any indication of evidence belonging to the thief and every time they came up with nothing. Absolutely nothing. The man was a ghost, and one never knew when he would strike or who he would target next. 

As it turned out, the thief made the announcement for his next heist the very next day, and Goro had a little bit of a jump on him. 

The heist was due to be performed inside a music hall Goro liked to frequent. When Goro was in middle school, he learned how to play the cello and quickly earned and maintained first chair position. Shido allowed it, because he was actually incredibly good at it, and therefore Shido saw his success as something he could bank on in the future. He’d purchased him a 140,000 yen Bellafina Overture cello and signed him up for advanced lessons. When Shido wanted something, he’d put up as much money as it took to get the results he wanted. 

Goro has since sold that cello and purchased a custom, pearlescent white Glasser carbon composite cello with a red bow that he preferred _ much _ better, but that was neither here nor there. 

The music hall was old, one of the oldest Western-style concert halls in Tokyo, and it was iconic for its massive stained glass window overlooking the street. The glass in that window was over a hundred years old, painstakingly put together by artisans and glassblowers, soldered together with skill and perfection. Goro really admired that window, and most especially the light it cast onto the stage at certain hours of the day. 

The thief had apparently found cause to steal something from the head conductor at this music hall, and Goro couldn’t possibly imagine what it could possibly be, given that he knew the conductor here. So far, all of the people this man has targeted have been criminals, and as far as Goro knew, the conductor wasn’t a criminal. The theft was heralded by a calling card stuck to the conductor’s podium. The card had, in no uncertain terms, condemned the conductor for, “thoughts and images of a despicable nature,” and threatened to reveal these distorted desires to the world. 

So, naturally, the conductor called the police. 

It was at that point that Goro was thankful he had the case anyway, because the victim specifically requested his presence. Goro arrived at the music hall with only two officers as backup, and in hindsight that was a _ fucking stupid _ thing to do. He should have brought an entire squad, though even when he did they still never managed to catch him. He and the officers searched the hall up and down, from the terrace all the way to the basement. They came up with no sign of tampering, no way for the thief to get in except through the front door. 

Goro posted the two guards by the door, in the foyer of the music hall, and Goro remained by the offices. The night had passed quietly, and Goro was nearly asleep with a book in his hand when he heard shuffling coming from the conductor’s office. 

Goro drew his sidearm and approached the door to the office slowly, his footsteps muffled by the carpeted floor. When he approached the door, he noticed that the door was open, when he had most definitely closed it when he finished his first sweep. Pushing the door open swiftly, Goro came face to face with the thief he was charged to arrest. He was slightly shorter than Goro, but tall enough to meet his eyes straight on, with fluffy black curls and a ridiculous French outfit. Black vest under a black trench, over black pants and pointed black shoes. The vest had silver trappings and his gloves were stark, bright red. He wore a mask that looked a little like an owl, white and black, and it covered eyes a slate grey Goro had never seen before until this second. There was a beat of absolute silence, before the thief kicked the chair in front of the desk outward with not inconsiderable strength, knocking into Goro and pushing him out into the hall. 

The thief took off down the hall, and Goro followed. He was on his radio alerting the other officers to the thief's presence, when the other man slid off to the left and up a narrow set of stairs. This was the back entrance to the terrace level, one used by staff. Goro skid to stop himself and chased the thief up the stairs, shouting after him, “Stop! This is the police!”  
  
Like any criminal has _ ever _ stopped when they heard those words. 

He chased the thief up onto the terrace, where the other cops below had used the stairs in the concert hall to reach the opposite side. The thief was now trapped on three fronts: he couldn’t move left or right without running into a cop, and he couldn’t backtrack without running into Goro. All the thief could do was hop up on the banister and put his back to the stained glass window. 

“Why are you targeting the conductor here,” Goro asked, eyeing the thief over the barrel of his gun. The other man tilted his head, almost confused. “I play here often- I know him. He’s a good man. Your M.O. so far has only been criminals, and exposing their crimes. The conductor has done nothing to warrant your theft! What could you possibly be stealing from him?”

The thief simply watched him, looking utterly intrigued. He finally opened his mouth to speak, and a soft but deep voice rolled out from his lips, “You have no idea, do you?” 

Goro lowered his weapon slightly, confused. No idea..? About what? Was it possible the orchestra conductor was guilty of a crime? 

“See ya.” 

With that, the thief jumped backwards out of the stained glass window, shattering a good third of it with the force of his impact. 

Goro ran to the edge of the window and looked down, but the thief was nowhere to be found- not even running down the street. 

Oh, that man was _ insufferable _. 

Goro filed his report and left the precinct that night, entirely miffed. How could he have let the thief get away so easily!? That was an embarrassment to his reputation, and it was bad enough the SIU director gave this case to him as a _ joke. _ What could the conductor _ possibly _ have done to warrant the theft of only information? It made no sense!  
  
At least, that was what he thought until he got off at the exchange in Shibuya and started walking towards his other train. 

At 10pm sharp, right over the ten o’clock news, all of the public tvs in Shibuya began to malfunction. 

The reception faded in and out, until a strange icon of a chibi cat appeared on the screen, and an auto tuned voice filtered through the speakers. “Ladies and gentlemen! We apologize for the interruption of your daily news schedule!” The voice sounded high pitched and garbled just enough to where Goro couldn’t pick out one voice from another as it appeared a couple of people were taking turns speaking. “We are the Phantom Thieves, and we have noticed that a lot of the privileged people of this country have been abusing their power at the expense of everyone else. Our goal is to uncover these truths!” 

God, could they sound more corny? Goro winced at the poor scripting and crossed his arms over his chest. Some people had dug out their cellphones and were taking videos of the event. Of course they would- this was just a weird announcement to them. Maybe viral marketing. They hadn’t yet learned this group was apparently the ones responsible for the recent string of corporate thefts. 

“We’ve taken notice that one among these corrupt elite is particularly vile.” That voice… That was the thief he met today! Goro felt prickles of anger crawl up the back of his neck. What the fuck did this moron think he was doing!?  
  
“By day, he’s the conductor of the Shibuya symphony orchestra. However, on the side he gives lessons to aspiring child musicians. We have received ample evidence, and have delivered this proof to the authorities, that he has sexually assaulted and acquired photos of these children in compromising situations. Instead of simply dropping this information off to the police, we decided that a more public acknowledgement of his guilt was necessary!” Before Goro and what had to be half of Shibuya currently tuned in to this channel, a photo of the conductor’s ID card appeared, and the public reaction was _ not _ pleasant. A visceral reaction to the revelation that such a public figure was involved in such horrific acts. 

Even Goro was shocked. 

He’d never expected to find that someone he knew, someone he’d had dinner with, would be capable of such things. 

How… How did Goro not notice? How did he not know? Wasn’t he supposed to be this amazing detective prodigy? He’s been working for the precinct since he was sixteen! Goro continued on his way, before his missed his train, and was stopped by a small screen just inside the platform that had changed from that design of the cat. Instead, the screen was red, and that same shrill voice from the beginning returned, “Before we let you go, our leader Joker has something he’d like to say!” 

The screen changed again, and this time it was to that smug face of that thief he met in the concert hall. It seemed as though those eyes stared directly at him, and him alone, through that little screen. “Do you see now, Detective?” Was all he said before the screen turned black. 

_ Oh _, that smug little-!

Goro was fuming the entire remainder of his trip home, absolutely infuriated by the audacity of the Phantom Thief named Joker. How _ dare _ he show him up, on live TV!? It wasn’t like he named Goro, but _ still _ ! His colleagues will know. His supervisor will know! That… _ asshole _! 

Huffing as he sat down on his sofa, Goro weighed his next steps. He was _ certainly _ not dropping this case now, or passing it on to some other poor bastard who wouldn’t be able to catch this man. No. Goro was in this to win it, now. Joker had made himself an adversary with that broadcast. That cocky son of a bitch. 

Even so, Joker _ was _ right. The conductor had committed a crime. A very, very horrible one. 

That didn’t mean that what Joker was doing was just. That didn’t preclude his crime of vigilantism. But… 

Would they have ever known, if Joker hadn’t intervened? 

Now that… was food for thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *mic drop*
> 
> Next chapter will be back to the angst, with a couple more flashback chapters. 
> 
> Also, Atlus can pry cello-playing Goro from my COLD, DEAD FINGERS. 
> 
> COLD AND DEAD FINGERS, ATLUS. 
> 
> Until next time! <3


	8. Subterfuge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I DID SAY I'D POST THIS TONIGHT! Tho it's so late it's early lmao 
> 
> Another thank you to the lovely Prompt_Master for listening to me screech about plot holes in the canon of Persona 5. You're the best and thank you for encouraging me to run with this idea!
> 
> So I mention Akechi's mother here, and will continue to do so as she's about to be a major plot point. As such, I noticed we don't have a canon name for her? So I just made one up. Please don't kill me. 
> 
> This chapter bounces around a lot, but I promise, it's all going somewhere! I hope you all enjoy!

When Makoto arrived to take over for Akira, she arrived in plainclothes. She wasn't sure what to expect when she got there, but she had been informed by Futaba that this was the detective that hunted them who Akira for whom had feelings. Futaba had also advised her to approach Akira with caution.

As far as Makoto knew, Goro dealt only with Akira. The two of them quickly fell into a rivalry and it really seemed like the only Thief he was after was Akira. It was possible the detective didn't know there were others in the net actually doing the thieving, instead of just accomplices in the more subtle sense. For her part, Makoto was not unaffected by the news that Goro had been shot. They were all aware of who he was, in case they’d run into him during their own heists, and given she was Sae’s sister she actually knew Goro personally, but for Akira’s sake, she held her emotions in check. Akira needed someone with a level head more than he needed an upset friend right now. 

True to her expectations, when she arrived, Akira was incredibly bad off, crying into the detective's shoulder and stemming the flow of blood from Goro’s stomach as best as he could. Makoto held her umbrella over them and grasped Akira by the shoulder. 

"It's time, Akira. You have to go."

Sirens sounded in the distance. 

Akira took a shuddering breath and carefully stood, passing a now crouching Makoto the nearly lifeless body of Akechi Goro. "Promise me you'll take care of him," Akira requested, thought it felt more like an order. Makoto nodded, "As well as I can. I promise." Seemingly satisfied with Makoto's response, Akira took off into the night, leaving one of his closest friends with his dying love. 

Makoto looked down at the man in her arms. Her sister thought the world of her protege. The three of them went out for sushi and drinks when their schedules allowed, which was at least twice a month. They almost made up a family of siblings by virtue, and this was an absolutely devastating turn of events. Makoto wasn’t sure how her sister was going to react to the news, but she knew it wasn’t going to be good.

The EMTs arrived minutes later, and as they moved Goro into the back of the ambulance, something fell out of the man's pocket. Makoto bent to pick it up, surprised to find a small metal device like a thick pill. It was a bluetooth surveillance bug. Trapping the umbrella between the crook of her arm, Makoto dug around in her skirt pocket for her phone. She had to make this call before she got into the ambulance with Goro.

She had to call her sister.

Akira was halfway across town in less than thirty minutes, absolutely livid. He didn't care who was at the end of this trail. Wherever the dot ended up taking him, whoever was in current possession of it. It didn't matter if that person ended up being the Prime Minister of Japan or just a regular John Doe off the street. Akira was going to beat them within an inch of their life, dredge up from the depths of their pasts every criminal thing they'd ever done, and broadcast it for the entire _ world _ to see.

Akira was out for blood, and there was no force on Earth that could stop him. 

His target came to rest inside a parking garage about one block away from the diet building. Easy enough for Akira. He took the fire escape down and encroached on the SUV that transported Goro. Peering into the window, Akira saw the blood on the floorboards and the glowing green light of the tracking dot. Akira hissed under his breath, seething even more. That was Goro's blood in there. 

At the sound of muffled voices, Akira slid into the shadows and waited as two men came back outside and around the side of the SUV. Akira ducked down low, so as not to be seen, and peered over an old barrel to watch the men who'd arrived. 

One of them was lean yet muscular, wearing a pair of deep purple slacks, a white button up with the sleeves cuffed above his elbows, and a black tie. Akira figured this guy was higher on the chain, given the quality of the suit he was wearing. The other enforcer, on the other hand…

Akira remembered. 

This man was much bigger, with bulkier muscles. He wore a slate gray tank top and black slacks, and he looked like he'd lost a fight. He had a black eye, scratches, freshly bandaged hands, and stood curled inwards to put pressure off his sides. But what caught Akira's attention was his face and his tattoos. Even without the white suit he wore when Akira saw him last, he'd never forget that face.

That was the man who had shot him.

"Man, the boss was so pissed." 

"That guy is fucking crazy, man. Dude nearly broke my ribs."

"Yeah, and busted your balls," the well-dressed man laughed. 

Akira smiled from his hiding place. Goro did a number on that man, and he was _ so proud _. The muscular enforcer snarled, "Fuck off! It doesn't matter anyway. The boss shot him. He's probably dead by now." 

"Can you imagine shooting your own son?" 

Akira froze, not quite sure he'd heard that man properly. Goro was shot… by his own father? Right as Akira was processing that little nugget of information, the larger enforcer opened the back of the SUV. 

"Fuck, there's blood all over the back. We'll have to scrub it out."

"I'll get the stuff." 

"Wait a minute… what the fuck is that?" Shit! They found the dot! If they alert their friends, any element of surprise he had would be gone, and they'd call for backup. Akira would be surrounded in seconds with no way out for an entire block! 

Acting fast, Akira vaulted over the barrel he was behind and swiftly came up behind the two enforcers. With all the strength he could muster, Akira grabbed the two men by the backs of their heads and rammed them as hard as he could into the frame of the SUV. The man in the purple suit was knocked out immediately, but the other was only incapacitated as he stumbled in shock. He turned to look dumbfounded at Akira, who slammed his fist into the enforcer’s face with all of his might. The larger man didn’t even retaliate as his lights were promptly knocked out, and he fell to the ground with a resounding thud. Stepping over them, Akira leaned over the puddle of Goro’s blood and reclaimed his tracking dot, which he turned off and slid into his pocket. 

Let the heist begin. 

Back across town at Shibuya General Hospital, Sae met Makoto at the entrance to the ER wing, looking worse for wear. She was frazzled, rain-sodden, with bags under her eyes and her usually meticulous hair unkempt and soaked. She must have rushed over as soon as she had gotten off the phone with Makoto. Sae met her halfway to the door as Makoto exited the ambulance, “What happened?” The natural question fell from her lips in a flurry of syllables, her focused face belying her anxiety. 

“I’m not sure. He was shot in an alleyway not five minutes away from the precinct.”  
  
“How did you find him?”  
  
“I didn’t. A friend did, and he left Goro with me as he chased after the perpetrators.” 

Sae stared at Makoto, not believing her for one second, even though what Makoto told her was essentially the truth. But then, Sae looked down at her phone, and she sighed. “Come on. Let’s go inside. I want to hear what the doctor has to say.” 

The two of them went into the ER waiting room, and took a seat separate from all the others sitting there. Sae slung her drenched coat over an empty chair and paced in front of Makoto. For her part, Makoto was mildly calm, and only got up once to make what ended up being rather horrible tea in a styrofoam cup. The waiting seemed to never end. Five minutes passed as quickly as five hours, and there seemed to be no end in sight. 

After about one and a half hours of tense silence and anxiety, an ER surgeon came out to greet them. 

“Are you family of Akechi-san?”  
  
“No, but I’m his work superior.”  
  
“Ah, I see… In that case, I can’t allow you to go back and see him. However,” the doctor raised his calm voice just sightly to cut over Sae’s aborted retaliation, “He’s going to be fne. Akechi-san suffered from two broken ribs, several instances of blunt force trauma to the abdomen and face, a broken nose, a minor head injury, and a gunshot wound to the abdomen as well. We _ were _ able to retrieve the bullet and stitch him up pretty well, and he’s incredibly lucky his ribs didn’t puncture his lungs. However, his stomach, small intestine, spleen, and one kidney were damaged by the gunshot wound. We’re keeping him under for a few days to observe his healing process and to keep his pain to a minimum.”

“You’ve induced a coma,” Sae all but snarled, looking at the doctor with an incredulous expression. “Yes, ma’am. His pain level would be so great that we’re worried it could cause him more harm, and morphine just won’t cut it in his case. It’s only for a couple days, then we’ll bring him out of it. For that time, though, he’s going to stay in the ICU, and you cannot see him yet. Rest assured, however, that we have notified his father of his whereabouts.” 

“I see. Can you call me as soon as we’re able to see him?”  
  
“Of course. Just leave your information with the receptionist. Good night.” 

Makoto narrowed her eyes as she contemplated her options. Her sister was obviously stressed, running her hands through her hair and _ finally _ sitting down in one of the hard chairs of the waiting room. Makoto was content to wait, given that she would rather let Goro’s body do its thing while under the watchful eyes of professionals. But Akira would absolutely not agree. She knew he’d want to be by Goro’s side for as long as possible, once his hunt was completed. Makoto stood under the pretense of having to go to the bathroom before they left, and called Futaba from the hallway. 

Akira had snuck into the building attached to the parking garage, which ended up being an extremely expensive-looking apartment complex. He assumed the people who lived here mostly worked at the Diet building, and thus were entirely loaded. Akira hated even the implication of this building’s existence. The very fact that this building even _ smelled _ like the concept of money meant that these people were living a life of luxury while everyone else in the community could only aspire to such levels of comfort. It made the perfect backdrop for this heist, though, Akira would have to say. 

Futaba had captured the license plates of the Cadillac and the SUV using CCTV camera footage and ran them against every known owner of such vehicles in Shibuya. The list was actually incredibly small, as only one person in the entire city owned the titles to both vehicles at once:  
  
Shido Masayoshi. 

As it happened, Shido owned an apartment here, on the forty-second floor.  
  
Akira hated this place. 

As he made his way up the elevator into the building, and thence down the hall towards Shido’s apartment, his earpiece crackled to life.  
  
“Hey, Joker, Makoto called.”  
  
No two words have stopped Akira in his tracks faster. He held his breath, waiting to hear the verdict on Goro’s health.  
  
“He’s gonna be okay.” 

Relief flooded his entire body and he sagged against the wall, breathing a sigh so heavy he knees shook with the force. He got to him in time- Goro was going to be okay! “Thank you, Oracle,” Akira breathed, hoping he conveyed exactly how grateful he was to her for sharing the news. Now fully capable of focusing on his heist as Joker once more, he slipped silently down the hall towards his target. Joker rifled through his pockets and produced his lockpicks, making quick work of the door. One would think that such a fancy apartment would have a keycard, or some kind of biometric scan. But no, all that separated him from getting inside the apartment was a simple doorknob with a tumble lock. 

The inside of the apartment was minimalist and extremely clean. Everything seemed to have a shiny veneer to it that Joker abhorred, but he also appreciated its organization. It was definitely easier to find his target this way. 

No one was home, thankfully, and Joker quickly found what he was looking for: Shido’s laptop. 

It was a simple model, and was honestly most likely the cheapest item in the entire apartment. Producing a USB drive from his pocket, he opened the laptop and slid the drive home into the side port. Futaba insisted all of the Thieves carry this drive when going on heists like this, so Joker just kept it on him at all times. The thumbdrive contained a cracking program Futaba developed, as well as a mirror program that copied files without leaving a trace. The cracking and copying would take just a minute or two, so Joker set about carefully ransacking the office for any physical data. 

The office was so sparsely furnished that the only places where Joker could look were a bookshelf and a desk. Attempting the bookshelf first, Joker checked around the books to see if there were any telltale signs such as disturbed dust or scratches in the wood. But the shelves were pristine, and there were no signs of damage at all, so Akira moved on to the books themselves. He found a book with no title that ended up being an empty hollow book, which is where Joker assumed Shido kept the gun he’d used to shoot Goro. 

What a shame he didn’t return it here, for Joker to take and use as evidence. 

Somewhere towards the bottom of the shelves, near the floor, Joker found another book with no title. This book was old, and a little worn. Unlike the others on the shelf. Pulling the book off of the shelf and opening it, Joker found exactly what he’d expected: another hollow book. 

However, this one was not empty. 

Inside the book was a faded, folded paper that looked like it had been folded and unfolded so many times the paper was weak at the creases. Joker unfolded it to find the original of Goro’s birth certificate, with his mother’s name listed as Akechi Miyu, and the father was not named. Under that document was another, slightly neater document, which appeared to have only been folded once. 

It was the death certificate of Akechi Miyu. 

What startled Akira the most was that he had been laboring under the assumption that Goro’s mother committed suicide when he was very young. 

Suicide was not the cause of death listed on the death certificate. 

But homicide was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See. Here's the thing about kids. 
> 
> They'll believe anything. So if you tell them, "Yeah your mother committed suicide" and that's all they grow up knowing, that's all they believe. 
> 
> Case in point: Akechi Goro's mother committed suicide. 
> 
> Are we sure? 
> 
> Until next time! <3


	9. Shootout Turnabout

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this was so late! I was very busy today, and I haven't been sleeping properly so nothing's exactly sounding right to me right now lol
> 
> I've decided to start smattering in little flashbacks of Goro and Akira's origins, to kind of give some backbone to their current... dilemma. Plus, who doesn't like some fluff? 
> 
> This chapter was, for some reason, very difficult for me to write, and as such it's mostly unedited.

Around the nine month mark of their rivalry, Joker and Goro’s rivalry had died down to a cat and mouse chase that ended with them speaking more than fighting. There was always something between them- gaps between rooftops, walls, windows, and one memorable occasion was a security partition in an art museum. If one asked Akira to narrow down the date of this particular event, he would say it was roughly around nine and a half months since meeting the detective, and was easily one of his favorite early memories. 

Akira got the ping from Futaba while he was at work in Leblanc. 

“Yoooo, Joker, I have a big one for you!” 

Akira didn’t even ask why she called him instead of just walking down the street to tell him herself. She had to stay glued to her monitors when she worked, otherwise she wouldn’t see anything, and therefore couldn’t provide them any guidance. The only time she’s ever away from her room, she's in the cafe of Leblanc and she always brings her laptop just in case. But the laptop is only useful when only one thief is deployed, not several like in the case of today. 

  
“Go ahead, Oracle.”    
  
“I dunno if you’ve been listening to the news at all today?”    
  
“Sojiro has it switched on to a game show.”    
  
“Okay, well, that detective that’s after you? He’s currently in the middle of a gang fight.” 

“Oh?” Akira stopped washing the dishes in his hands to listen more carefully to Futaba over the ear piece. “Yeah,” Futaba continued, “A group of drug runners were cornered by police, and your boy was among the cops to first get caught in the crossfire. Turns out this is one of his cases, and it’s gone really bad.”    
  
“Well, fuck.” That led Akira to an impasse. Part of him was entirely nonplussed that Detective Akechi was in danger. The other part, on the other hand, filled with anxiety. He’d learned a little bit more about the detective from their encounters. He learned Akechi usually takes his bike if the weather is nice, is a particularly good climber, and has an honorable (if not skewed) sense of justice. He learned that Akechi liked being a detective, and that he liked getting hands-on with his cases. Akira also learned, and last but most certainly not least, that when Akechi was frustrated, he had the most adorable wrinkle in the space between his eyes. Akira couldn’t help but think that the world would feel a little smaller if something happened to the detective and he died. 

“Joker, there are kids involved, too.” 

Akira was out the door before Sojiro could finish asking him where he was going. 

Joker dropped into the situation from the back alleys of Central Street. The gang members were held up in the alley in front of Untouchables. That wasn’t good- the store was run by one of his people. Akira relied on Iwai for supplies and information. Iwai was his eyes and ears around the city, and he still had some connection to the Yakuza after he’d left to raise his young son, Kaoru. The store was open during this time, and it was late enough in the day that it was likely Kaoru was inside with Iwai, having just gotten out of school. The fight had to de-escalate, and fast. 

Iwai had crafted for him a rooftop entrance out of a ventilation shaft the building had naturally, and Joker used that to slide down into the storefront. Iwai was held up in the back room with Kaoru, a couple customers, a family of a single mother and her son that had been on the street when the shooting started, and a familiar frame swearing up a storm under his breath by the door. 

Akira smirked, eyeing the detective fuming as he leaned out from his cover by the door. A bullet cracked through the glass of the door and buried itself into the tile floor. The children shouted, and Iwai bunched up with Kaoru behind him. He couldn’t fight back from here- he had to protect his son first and foremost.    
  
Joker nodded to Iwai, slinking across the back room floor until he reached Goro and signaled his presence with a clearing of his throat. Goro still jumped and looked over at him, shocked. “What the  _ hell _ are you doing here? You know what- Nevermind. I don't have time to deal with you right now. Now that you're here, we can actually help each other.” 

Joker quirked his brow, and Goro shot him a look, “Make yourself useful! We’re trapped back here together right now anyway! We have to get the civilians out of here."

Not that Joker ever would, given the situation, but he was sorely tempted to point out that he could just leave the way he came and leave the detective to his attitude. Huffing slightly, he crossed his arms over his chest, “What do you need me to do?” 

Their plan was a simple one, Joker had to go outside and start a distraction that would last long enough for the civilians to escape and for Goro to regroup with his people. In exchange for his cooperation, Goro would forget he ever saw him today. That seemed fair enough, and Joker agreed with little hesitation. Using his vent entrance, Joker slipped unnoticed outside the building and looked around for ideas on what to do. He noticed some of Goro’s fellow officers bore down the opposite alley, the only thing blocking the dealers and the street. A large group of them were in the street, fighting from behind stands and storefront windows. 

Rummaging through his pockets, Joker took stock of what tools he had. He had his dot, his lockpicks, one smoke grenade, two back up bobby pins, and some matches. Not a whole lot with which to start a distraction, but he could make do with this. 

On the rooftop of the Big Bang Burger across the street from Untouchables, Joker pulled the pin on his smoke grenade and chucked it with as much force as he could muster into the street where the gang members were mostly gathered. The grenade detonated upon contact with the street and smoke filled the alley. When he arrived back over to Untouchables, Iwai and Kaoru were making sure the guests and the family got out okay. They were in the middle of pulling the gates back down when a gang member came around the corner and noticed they were escaping. The gang member opened fire on them, and a few things happened in quick succession.    
  
Goro opened retaliating fire, snapping a bullet between the gangster’s eyes.    
  
Iwai threw his body over Kaoru.

Joker grabbed the kid and the mother, and the mother shouted in his arms. 

Goro turned to check on the others and Joker pulled away from the mother to find a bullet had passed through her stomach, and she was bleeding profusely. "Detective," Joker shouted, gaining his attention. Goro ran over to help Joker, who had set about pressing his hand to her injury. Goro heard shouting and dashed over to the alley entrance, then came right back. "You have to go," Goro took over pressing his hand onto the mother's stomach, pushing away Joker. "They're using the distraction you made to start arresting the gang members, they'll be down here any second. Go, Joker, now!" Iwai stood by with Kaoru and the two of them held onto the young kid. Joker passed them, nodding to Iwai, "Take care of him," Joker whispered, taking off up the fire escape. 

He would let Iwai decide if he meant the kid, Goro, or both.

Later that night, Joker found Goro at Inokashira Park, sitting on a bench overlooking the river. He’d been passing by, waiting for the details of Fox’s newest heist when he’d found the detective looking miserable. Dropping into view, Goro simply looked up at him, and then back down at his hands. That behavior was extremely unusual for the detective, and Joker wasn’t sure what to do with that. So, in lieu of saying anything, or even teasing the brunet, Joker simply sat down next to him, and waited to see if the other man would speak. 

They didn’t say anything for a long time. Long enough that Joker wondered if he should just leave the detective to his thoughts, until he finally spoke. 

“When I was six, I lost my mother,” he started, and Joker already felt like he was intruding on something personal. 

“I came home from school, and… she was slumped over the dining room table. There was blood… everywhere. She’d taken my father’s gun and shot herself in the head. I was too young- I didn’t understand what the police were saying. I didn’t understand the concept of killing oneself. All I knew was that… mom wasn’t around anymore. She wouldn’t make me pancakes in the morning. She wouldn’t be there to tell me she’s proud of my grades. She wouldn’t kiss my bandages to make them better. She was just… gone,” What does one say to that? Especially when hearing it from someone who hates you, and is actively trying to arrest you? Akira was entirely speechless, but he also felt that maybe words were not what Goro needed right now. Instead, he simply scooted closer to the brunet, and waited patiently. 

“The boy lost his mother,” Goro said softly, “And we have been unsuccessful in getting a hold of the father. There are no immediate relatives, either. The boy is now… an orphan.” That wrenched at Akira’s heart to hear. He should have done better at providing a distraction- he should have done  _ more _ . Goro looked at him, and apparently something must have shown on his face, because Goro nudged him slightly, “Don’t blame yourself, Joker. You did what you could. None of us would have gotten out of there, were it not for you.” 

“What’s going to happen to the boy?” The question was a heavy one, and one that Goro seemed intent on ignoring, but Joker needed to ask. He wanted to help the boy if he could. Maybe one of his associates knew someone reliable who was looking to adopt. Goro seemed to hesitate, and then he sighed heavily, “If we cannot find any immediate relatives or the father… the boy will go to an orphanage.” 

“You don’t want that to happen.”    
  
“Do you?” 

Joker shook his head, saying nothing else. After another long stint of silence, Goro spoke up, “I didn’t expect to see you. How did you know I was in that store?” 

“... I didn’t.” That was as much as Goro was going to get, he mentally swore to himself.    
  
“Then… why?” 

“Because I heard you were down there. I was worried.” As Joker immediately breaks the promise he’d just made with himself. Goro seemed to take that answer and mull it around in his head. They descended into silence once again, though this time it was a peaceful one. Joker was a little upset with himself he told Goro he had been worried. Deep down, Joker knew it was the truth- for all that he tried to tell himself that he really only came down here to stop the shootout, he did genuinely want to make sure the detective was safe. Whatever that truly meant about his opinion of Goro, however, was something he elected not to think about just yet. “Joker?” Goro’s voice was quiet and hesitant, immediately grabbing Joker’s attention for how soft it was leaving his lips.

“Hmm?”    
  
“... Thank you.” 

Joker wasn’t sure whether Goro meant for the rescue, for the listening, or both, but he nodded anyway.

“You’re welcome.” 

Three days later, Akira walked into Untouchables to work, and was greeted with an excited Kaoru and a smiling Iwai. “Akira! That was  _ so cool _ -”   
  
“Kaoru’s been waiting for you to come around, to thank you.” The young boy continued to rant in the background while Iwai got him started on his work, and Akira smiled and nodded along to Kaoru’s excited ramblings. When a moment of silence came along, Akira turned to Iwai to speak. 

“What happened with the boy? Did they find his father?” Iwai paused and thought for a moment, as if weighing whether or not to tell Akira the news. “No. They didn’t,” Iwai said softly, “I wish I could have taken him in, but with Kaoru, I can’t afford to raise another kid.” Akira simply nodded, already filtering through potential candidates in his head. “What I have heard, though,” Iwai began, jarring Akira from his thoughts, “Is that a certain detective found the boy a home with one of his coworkers. They’re well off, and she and her partner had been looking to adopt. As far as I can tell, the boy’s going to be well taken care of and happy.” 

That was… unexpected news. Pleasant, for sure, but unexpected. Akira felt his heart do something strange in his chest, and it suddenly felt as though it was too large for his ribcage. Goro was a unique soul, after all. Perhaps getting closer to the detective chasing him wouldn’t be so bad. 

Perhaps there was something more to this than a cat and mouse chase.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will see us going back to the hospital with Goro, cause I have some devious plans in store for all of you! This story is far from over yet!
> 
> Until next time! <3


	10. 100 Cubic Centimeters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ARE YALL READY? 
> 
> I'm not! 
> 
> Here we gooooooo! <3

As midnight passed, the hospital grew incredibly quiet and solemn. The air felt tense, and smelled of antiseptic. Nurses puttered around from time to time, and every now and again someone in the waiting room would cough, but otherwise it was as silent as the grave. Every once in a while, Makoto would dip off to the “bathroom” in order to give updates to Futaba. Makoto had come back down the hall from one such visit around 12:30 AM, playing with Goro’s bug device in her hands. Why did he have this? What purpose would it serve? Twisting the two ends of the device, the center turned green. Oh- she hadn’t meant to turn it on… now how does she turn it off…? Approaching the waiting room, Makoto looked up to see her sister staring at her and the small device in her hands. “Where did you get that,” Sae asked, crossing the distance between them in a few strides. “It was in Goro’s pocket. Do you know what it is?” 

“Yes, I do. It’s one of our bug devices we use at the precinct. I didn’t think that Goro had checked one of these out…”  
  
“Sis, if Goro is in half as much danger as we believe he is, he probably just took the device, or bought his own.” 

Sae nodded, that was a very real possibility. She eyed the device in Makoto’s hands, and looked back down at her phone. 

“What’s wrong? You’ve been looking at your phone all night. Are you being called into work?” Sae shook her head, weighing the pros and cons of telling Makoto what she had been entrusted with, and settled on the truth. “Goro sent me an email shortly before he was taken.” Makoto blanched in response. Goro must have known they were coming for him, then. The very implication that this was something Goro had _ set up _ was staggering. What could he possibly be trying to do if this was the end result? Goro was in the hospital, and very nearly died, to reach some goal. What… could it be? 

“Goro said that some things were going to happen, and some knowledge about him was going to be brought to light. He said that, no matter what else I do, even if I hate him as a result of this, that I had to get _ that _ device into his father’s pocket,” Sae murmured, pointing at the device in her hands, “And that if I ever see the Phantom Thief Joker, to apologize on his behalf.” 

That hard truth squeezed Makoto’s heart with an iron fist. Goro wasn’t expecting to live through this, was he? Or maybe he hoped for it, but knew the chances were incredibly slim. The two of them fell silent as Sae reached out and retrieved the silver bug from Makoto’s hands and examined it closely.  
  
Just as they were thinking among themselves, the news station playing on the waiting room TV bustled with activity, a jarring musical change heralding the issuing of breaking news. 

“This just in from the Diet Building, Prime Minister hopeful Shido Masayoshi has released a statement saying that his son, Akechi Goro, was brutally attacked and hospitalized earlier tonight. Shido claims the detective prodigy was assaulted by a group known only as the Phantom Thieves, who have claimed responsibility for several heists containing corporate data and evidence alluding to the crimes of the elite. When questioned by our news station, Shido has this to say”

The newscast cut to a press release of Shido standing in front of the Diet Building, talking to as many news stations as he could get a hold of within the last hour. He had his arms crossed in front of his chest, grabbing on to his own arms like he was holding himself together. The act was so poorly put together that even Makoto could see that he didn’t really care about his son. “_ My only son was attacked and shot in an alleyway by the Phantom Thief called Joker. I absolutely condemn them, and view them to be part of the reason why organized crime is on the rise in this city. I promise you, I will find them, and persecute them to the full extent of the law! I was willing to let the police do their jobs in this matter, but now it’s personal, and I will not be intimidated by this blatant attack on my family! _ ” Shido then pushed through the crowd and got into a black Cadillac, and drove away in some unknown direction.  
  
Makoto was reaching for her phone before she caught the rest of the news story. Makoto was _ seething _, and she was sure Akira wasn’t much better off, if he was watching this right now. She was halfway through dialing Akira’s phone number when Akira called her. 

“_ Please tell me you’re still at the hospital _.” Akira’s livid voice filtered through the phone, offering no opportunity to contest. “Yes, however, they’ve restricted entry. Only family can see him.” 

“Can you stay, at least until I can get there? Please, Makoto, I _ need _ you to watch for Shido.” Makoto turned to look at Sae, who was watching her curiously. 

“Akira… I’ll stay.” A sigh of relief crackled through the phone in a burst of white noise, “Thank you,” he replied, and hung up the phone. She turned to her sister, “I’m going to stay for a while. Would you like to sit with me?” Makoto turned to sit back down on the chair she’d previously vacated. Sae sat down next to her, crossing one leg over the other, and settled in for a long night. 

“So. At what point were you going to tell me you’re a Phantom Thief?” 

Across town, Joker was _ furious. _ How dare that son of a bitch blame him for shooting Goro. He’d _ never _ consider shooting _ anyone _ ! His feelings for Goro aside! Sure, the Phantom Thieves were vigilantes and they didn’t exactly have the best reputation, but they have _ never _ harmed a civilian or taken a life, and that was something that Joker was _ proud of, goddammit. _They never resorted to violence, no matter how bad the situation was. Now every cop in the city would view Joker as an attempted cop killer, and the whole city would come bearing down on him for this! Cops would be out in droves within the hour, and his movement would be extremely restricted. 

Digging his phone out of his pocket, he called Futaba. 

“Oracle, how long do I have before the police are on the streets?” 

  
“Not long. They’re beginning to organize, and I’m seeing large trucks.” 

“Okay. I need you to run a search for me on an Akechi Miyu, and I need to know the details of her death.” 

“Joker-”  
  
“Oracle, please! I need this information as soon as you can!”  
  
“Okay, okay!” Futaba typed away on her computer console, and eventually came back with, “It says here that she committed suicide when she 32, at home alone before her son came home from school. The record is mostly empty, and a lot of redactions were made. This is shady, Joker. She was shot on the left side of her head, supposedly with her left hand, but she was a dominant right-hand. There were minimal signs of forced entry, and the lock was broken. It looks like they tried to pick it and ended up breaking the knob.”  
  
“Why wasn’t a homicide declared after the investigation?”  
  
“There was no investigation,” Futaba replied, and honestly Joker didn’t know what he’d expected, “The original claim to homicide was thrown out and a suicide was declared the same day. The medical examiner conducted an autopsy, but the autopsy report is gone. There’s a spot for it, but no file.”  
  
“So it was deleted. Someone covered it up.”  
  
“Yeah, and her son went to his father, who previously refused to recognize him.” 

“Of course he didn’t. The fucker,” Joker growled, “Can you start gathering files on her? Something is happening here, and I think it has everything to do with her.” 

“Sure thing! 

Joker disconnected the line with Futaba and turned back to the news on the Central Street TV he was passing by when the broadcast began. How dare he. _ That man _ , who was the source of his original arrest, and all of his suffering. How _ dare _ he? 

When Joker saw his face blown wide on the screen, he almost fell off the roof he was standing on in shock. When he imagined what Shido, and therefore by extension Goro’s father looked like, he hadn’t imagined that man. He’d imagined some other kind of villain with a different face. Some nameless entity with the capabilities of staging the suicide of Goro's mother and forcing Goro into this dependent relationship that would eventually run out in time. What was Shido planning if he got what he wanted? Would he have just killed Goro anyway, since his role was done, and mooch off the sympathy points that his newly acknowledged, successful son was dead? From his own dealing with the man, Akira was sure he wasn't far from the mark. He had to act, and fast, to make sure Shido didn’t get within twenty feet of Goro while he recuperated in the hospital. Or ever. 

He was halfway to the hospital when Futaba contacted him. Something in his gut told him this was going to be nothing but bad news, and he slowed to a stop to hear what she had to say. 

“Hey, Joker, just letting you know, Polaris is down.”  
  
That was the first time that had ever happened. When Futaba developed Polaris, she had assured him the system was nearly self-sustaining, and could run on both her computer and her phone. It was a safety measure she’d implemented in case of a blackout or if she was away while taking a call, so she wouldn’t lose them. “What do you mean, ‘down’?” 

  
“Exactly what I said! The system is receiving something, but it isn’t displaying any dots. I even tried rebooting it, and it’s not responding.” 

“What could be causing it?” It was the next logical question that came to Joker’s mind, and honestly it wasn’t too much of a stretch for him to believe that some outside force was interfering with Futaba’s lovingly crafted software. 

“I have no idea, I haven’t ever seen Polaris do this before… Wait.” 

Oh that couldn’t be good news. 

“Wait, wait, Joker! Joker, get to the hospital _ now _ !”  
  
“What? I’m already on my way.” Joker began, picking up his pace once more. “Well, move faster,” Futaba cried, “Polaris is picking up sound! Shido is at the hospital!” 

Joker had never run so fast in his life.

Makoto knew this day was coming, but she hadn’t expected it to be in the middle of a hospital waiting room past midnight on a Tuesday, of all times. 

“It started as us realizing that the more responsible adults were taking advantage of the public, and no one was doing anything about it,” Makoto began, leaning against the wall. Sae had pulled Makoto out into the hallway between the wards to discuss this in a more private setting. At this time of night, there was no one around that wasn’t either in a room, at a nurse's station, or waiting in the waiting room, so the hallways were blessedly empty for this conversation. 

“Joker, our leader, was arrested by a government official. He stopped a woman from being sexually assaulted and _ he _ was the one who was arrested. They covered it up, and Joker doesn’t even know the man’s name. What was he supposed to do? Just sit there and let the government destroy his reputation over something that wasn’t his fault? Every time he tried to contest the charges, he was dismissed and ignored. At what point does plausible deniability run out? At what point is a justice system that routinely fails its people while toting such a high success rate an effective system?” 

Sae stared on, in shock that Makoto had actually sat down and thought about all of this. Her sister was intelligent, a rising public defender herself. But this… was not something she’d expected to hear out of her. 

“We all met Joker through different means, and Joker is also the force that unites us. We’ve all been let down by the system and disregarded by the very people who are supposed to protect us. All we want is for these people to own up to their own crimes, instead of flagrantly abuse the system they take advantage of so easily. We don’t carry weapons, we don’t perpetrate violence. We’re taking their dirty laundry and pulling it out into the light, because these are the people who comfortably buy off judges and cops to make sure they _ don’t _ get caught. The system needs work, and until we feel comfortable that the system is in good hands, we’ll continue to operate. No matter what you say,” Makoto finished, leveling her sister with a determined expression. 

“Makoto…,” Sae began, unsure exactly where to take this now that Makoto had not only divulged to her that she was operating as a Phantom Thief, but also that they intended to _ keep working _ until the system had sorted itself out and potentially convicted all these people who had abused the system. “And Goro? What about him,” she had to ask, since apparently any one of the closest people to her could be a Phantom Thief. 

“He’s innocent. Joker and he… As far as I can tell, Joker is in love with him, though he’d likely never admit it.” 

Sae was entirely at a loss for words. When she handed that manila folder to Goro two years ago, she didn’t think she was introducing him to a criminal who would eventually come to love him. Part of her wondered what Goro must feel, but if his email was any indication, he felt some level of the same. Sae was about to open her mouth to speak, when a nurse came out from behind the counter of the nearby nurse’s station. “Oh! There you two are! I’m so sorry, but as I understand it you were only waiting here until Goro’s father came? He’s here, and visiting hours are far from over. You can come back in the morning.”  
  
Makoto paled. Fuck! Why had she left her post!? “Shido… is here?”  
  
“Yes, we just sent him to the room a few minutes ago.” 

Makoto took off down the hall, Sae right behind her. “Hey,” the nurse shouted, chasing after them. Sae’s long legs eventually had her taking the lead, and she skid on the wax floor in her heels to stop herself right in front of Goro’s door.

When Sae threw open the hospital room door, she and Makoto ran into the room with the nurse right behind them to find Shido hunched over Goro’s central IV tube. 

A syringe full of nothing but air was punctured into the line.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *waits patiently to be viciously eliminated* :))))))) 
> 
> I love you all, I swear! I mean, the plunger on the syringe hasn't been pressed yet, sooooooo <3 
> 
> Until next time! <3


	11. The Darkest Point

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm SO SORRY this is late. I've had a very rough day. At first I couldn't even get the words to form, but then I just sat myself down and MADE myself write it and I think you can actually pinpoint the part where I started gaining traction lmao 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter! 
> 
> WARNING: This chapter is pretty violent, as it's 85% fisticuffs.

For a tense, held breath, no one moved. No one dared to do or say anything, until the nurse standing next to Sae registered what was happening and launched herself forward at full force and pushed Shido to the ground. Sae grabbed him up and the nurse carefully extracted the syringe from the IV lead. 

No air escaped into the tube.

Goro was safe. 

Shido thrashed in Sae’s hold, reaching up with his unrestrained hand to attempt to punch her across the face. Makoto threw herself into the fray and grabbed his other arm before he could swing his fist. The nurse hit the call button, checking Goro’s vitals and making sure Shido hadn’t managed to do anything else. 

The two girls tousled with Shido on the ground, and he was able to free his arm from Sae and kick Makoto away, dashing down the hall. Makoto took off after him, and Sae picked herself up, watching the nurse fuss over Goro and pulling out her phone. She had to alert the authorities of what just happened. 

Makoto shot off like a bullet after Shido, chasing him down the hall while calling Futaba, “I need you to tell Joker that Shido is here, and he just tried to kill Goro!” 

“ _ Fuck _ , okay! On it,” Futaba disconnected the call as Makoto chased Shido out into the parking lot, where he got into his waiting Cadillac and took off down the street. 

Joker watched the Cadillac peel away from the turn around and had a sickening feeling. Futaba pinged him in a panic, “Shido just tried to finish off Goro, don’t let him get away!” Joker had already taken off after Shido, who foolishly thought he could turn into an alleyway not far from the hospital in the hopes that he’d lost Makoto. He used the side of the building to drop down onto an overhang, and thence onto Shido’s car with a resounding  _ BANG _ that echoed off of the brick walls of the alley. 

This was not the best place in Shibuya to have a high-speed chase. The roads were more narrow, and where they were wide, they were full of cars at this time of day. If Shido tried to drive off, he’d hit someone before he got too far. So, even though he was cornered, Shido got out of the car and attempted to run into the adjacent building at the end of the alleyway instead. The building was an empty office that hadn’t been closed for the night. The foyer was actually quite spacious, which suited Joker well enough for what they were about to do. The staff here must have just waxed the floor, for Shido’s fancy shoes slipped on the tile in his haste and he fell forward, catching himself on his hands and knees. 

Joker caught up to the scrambling Shido before he could stand and grabbed him by the collar of his suit jacket. “You know,” Joker growled, tossing Shido into a nearby coffee table in front of reception, “I am usually wholly against violence. My team doesn’t ascribe to it, and neither do I. You, however, are an exception. Not only is it bad enough you kidnapped your own son, took him to the opposite end of town, and shot him in an alleyway, you came  _ back _ to finish the job. Why? To garner sympathy? To make your success on the backs of others, then cut your losses?” Shido attempted to push himself off the coffee table, but Joker just kicked him right back into it. Shido shouted as his back collided with the corner of the table, “What reason could you possibly give that’s good enough?” 

Shido snarled at him, a kind of low, calculated anger that Joker had… actually seen before, in Goro.  _ That _ was eerie. 

“What do you care? You’re a criminal, you don’t care about the fulfilment of justice, you just hide behind it while you tear down this country’s economy- ack!” Joker pressed harder, forcing his back even harder against the corner of the coffee table. “I do believe,” Joker growled, leaning over him, “That isn’t what I asked you, Shido Masayoshi.” 

“I only keep those around who are of use to me, Kurusu Akira.” 

Joker’s blood froze in his veins as those words left Shido’s lips. How did he know? He was always  _ so  _ careful not to leave evidence or be seen on cameras- he always took great care to make sure every heist was performed without a trace! How was it possible that this man somehow came up with his name!? 

Using the opportunity presented by Joker’s shock, Shido leveraged himself forward and swiped his fast upwards. Joker’s head snapped to the side with the force of his blow and he staggered backwards. “Do you honestly think I’d let my son get so close to you without learning everything there is to know about you? And it was  _ you _ ! From the assault case? Do you honestly think you’re worth  _ anything _ to my son? Don’t make me laugh!” Shido punched him again, this time in the gut, knocking the wind out of Akira. 

“I’ll tell you what, I’ll make you a deal.” 

Shido sneered down his nose at Akira, who struggled to catch his breath. “My son is worthless to both of us now. He’s a vegetable- we don’t know if he’ll ever wake up. If he dies, my voter support rises, and you lose the one detective who could actually catch you. It’s a win-win scenario,  _ Joker _ .” Shido fixed his cuff links, as if the rest of his suit wasn’t torn or bloody, and pushed his glasses back up to rest on the bridge of his nose. 

“Kill him for me, and I’ll clear your name. I’ll say someone else mugged and shot him. You get to continue your little game of pretend, and I get to be Prime Minister. What do you say?” 

The fucking  _ audacity _ . 

“Go to hell.” 

Another punch sent Joker’s mask flying off of his face, broken in two. The pieces skid across the tile and Akira watched them, ire filling him once more. Turning back to Shido, Akira launched himself at the other man, punching him in the face so hard he felt his own knuckles creak under the force. 

Finding his confidence even without the mask, Akira grabbed Shido by his plain, black tie and pulled him inwards, “I’m not going to kill you. Goro deserves his justice, and that can only happen in court. But when I’m through with you, you’ll wish I had.” 

Shido spat in his face. 

Akira let loose in a burst of feral energy he had no idea he possessed. He and Shido brawled in the foyer for what felt like hours, trading punches and kicks. Shido hit  _ hard _ , but Akira was deft and agile. Rearing back, Akira grabbed Shido by the collar and brought his own forehead down full force onto Shido’s, snapping his orange glasses right off his face. A swift right hook had Shido backing up into the desk of reception. His face was bloody, and his knuckles were torn up, but Akira figured he didn’t look too much better. 

“I shot my idiotic son because of you, you know,” Shido seethed, “He was going on so well with our plan until  _ you _ came along and got into his head.” He swiped up at Akira, who dodged backwards and slammed his elbow into Shido’s temple. Shido groaned and held his head, and Akira could  _ not _ contain himself any longer. 

“How fucking  _ dare _ you!? Goro is an adult! He isn’t your responsibility anymore! He can take care of himself!  _ You don’t own him _ , Shido! You think he’s only valuable because of whatever ‘service’ he can provide you!? How fucking selfish is that?  _ Fuck you _ ! You deserve whatever sentence the courts pass on you, and I swear to you, you  _ will _ go to jail for this. I don’t care how many people you buy off, or how many freedoms you try to steal, I’m making it my  _ life’s work _ to take you down, for Goro, for myself, and for Miyu!” 

Shido spat onto the freshly washed floor, “What do you know about that woman?” 

“I know you had her killed. She knew something, didn’t she, Shido?” He didn’t need Futaba to tell him that much. “She was planning to turn you in, wasn’t she? For voter fraud, embezzling, hell, anything! Even I caught you committing sexual assault- who knows what she saw?” 

Shido sneered at him and opened his mouth to speak, but Akira interrupted him, “You had your cronies go to her house, before Goro came home from school. They couldn’t pick the lock properly so they just broke it. She probably fought them, fought for her life, even. But they sat her down at the kitchen table and shot her on the left side of her head- the wrong side. She was right handed.” Shido was looking more than a little pale now, and Akira couldn’t put a cork in himself even if he tried, so he trudged forward, advancing on Shido until they were a foot apart, his tone intensifying with each step he took, “When they tried to investigate, you paid them off, buried the autopsy report, and had it declared a suicide all so you could take in Goro to use as a  _ fucking pawn _ .” 

“How did you figure all this out, Kurusu?” 

“I took a little trip to your apartment,” Akira produced the original of Akechi Miyu’s death certificate and showed the folded square to Shido, who, as Akira suspected, lunged right for it. 

Akira met this assault with introducing his fist to Shido’s face once more. 

“Why did you kill her? Was she going to expose you? Was she going to run?” 

Shido snarled, quickly realizing that he was losing this fight. 

"Answer me!" 

"She was just a one-night stand! Then the uppity bitch tried to say if I didn't acknowledge her son has legitimate, she'd go to the media! She would have ruined my career! She fucking deserved it- for blackmailing me! Both she and her dumbass kid- they both never did what I wanted them to do! They could never just keep their mouths fucking shut. What did he tell you? Hm? What sweet nothings did my son promise you to get you to fight this hard for him?” Shido sounded entirely disgusted, grimacing at Akira like he’d just been shown the worst thing in the world. 

Akira promised himself he wasn’t going to kill him. 

“I thought I raised him more useful than that.” 

He’s not going to kill him. 

“It’s a shame I didn’t kill him when I shot him.” 

But he will make it hurt. 

Akira swung his leg out to kick in Shido’s knee from the side, and swung down with his fist, effectively hitting Shido in the head and sending him down onto the ground, unconscious. Heaving his breaths, the pain finally began to settle into his skin. His knuckles felt like cracked glass. His entire face hurt. He was bleeding from his forehead and his knuckles from under his gloves. 

But he’d done it. 

Bending down to check Shido’s pulse, he was satisfied to find the bastard was still breathing. Joker gathered the broken pieces of his mask and pulled out his phone.    
  
“Oracle.” 

“ _ Jesus, Joker! I heard all of that! _ ” 

“You heard it all?” 

  
  
“Yeah! Polaris picked up all of that and is automatically saving it onto my computer as an mp3 file! I didn’t design her for this- the dots can’t pick up noise, they don’t have a speaker! What-”    
  
Akira turned to look at Shido as Futaba ranted, connecting the pieces. 

Oh. 

That smart, resourceful, crafty,  _ brave _ man.

Akira bent down once more to rifle through Shido’s pockets and, sure enough, in his hands he held the cracked metal frame of Goro’s bug device. 

“‘Taba.” 

“Yeah?” 

“Is it possible to tether a listening device to the frequency Polaris puts out?” 

“I… I mean, it isn’t outside the realm of possibility. Maybe! If you had one of my dots and a receiver, and some fancy software that-”

  
  
“That maybe the police have?” Futaba was silent for a moment, realizing herself, when a quiet, “Yeah…,” came through from her end. 

“Call the cops and let them know where Shido is. I’ll stay until they get here, but I want to go back to the hospital as soon as possible.” 

An hour and a half later found Akira dipping into Goro’s room from the window. Makoto had informed him that security had been placed outside, not that he would have been let in from the front anyway. He’d taken some extra time after watching Shido’s miserable form be picked up off the ground where he’d left him in order to clean the blood off of his face and perform minor first aid. His entire body hurt, but he didn’t want to stop to do anything more than this. Clumps of blood still clung to his curly hair, sticking strands together as they dried. So long as he could see, he was fine with that. He didn't even change his clothes, or swap out for his backup mask.

Akira leaned down to place a soft kiss to Goro's forehead and sat down in the chair beside the bed with a heavy sigh. It felt  _ so good _ just to sit down after the night he’d had. Scooting forward in his chair, Akira rested his bandaged head on Goro’s arm. He was warm, and his EKG was beeping steadily. They were safe, and could both finally rest. 

They weren’t done yet, though. As safe as they were now, a larger fight was before them. They had to take Shido to court, and make the charges stick. That would be hard- given that Shido has literally gotten away with murder before, but tonight wasn’t the time to think about that. 

Akira was going to wait here for a while, with Goro. 

Some hard-won rest sounded good for tonight. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I KNOW that sounds like an ending, but we aren't done yet! We still have to make sure Shido is put away. Plus, I did promise y'all a ton of fluff, and I fully intend to deliver. 
> 
> Please let me know what you think! 
> 
> Until next time!


	12. Waiting for the Sunrise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Goooooood morning! Pas is up, so Pas is writing! 
> 
> Welcome to chapter 12, where it's somewhat filler, somewhat flashback. 
> 
> Don't think I have forgotten that Akira wanted to buy something for Goro's side table! 
> 
> Cause I haven't. I promise!
> 
> EDIT: Shout out to Lizz for letting me know that I'd forgotten to add the part where the cops actually did clear his apartment. Thank you so much! You guys keep me honest as a writer and I love you all! <3

Goro was to be under observation for two more days, then the doctors claimed they would move him out of the ICU and bring him out of his medically-induced coma. Until then, Akira couldn’t see him during the days because nurses would come and go out of his room at random. During the nights, however, Akira could stay as long as he wanted before the morning shift arrived. Akira was still recovering from his own injuries that he sustained in the fight with Shido, and Futaba had officially taken him off duty for a whole week. Makoto was going to take the lead until he was fully healed and Goro was awake. 

So that left Akira with nothing to do during the day. 

Yesterday, after Shido had been apprehended, the police had investigated Goro's apartment and had oddly finished within that singular night. Sae had assured him that no one had been bought off or persuaded to throw out the case. She explained that they didn't really need to do much- They came in and took their photos, and dusted for prints. They seized his laptop for investigation, and a swab was taken of Goro's blood in his room, as well as one smear that was found on the door frame that likely belonged to the enforcer. After a handful of hours, they were gone as quickly as they came. As far as Sae had informed him, the police were done with the scene, and Akira could do as he pleased. 

Akira decided to do something useful with his time, and that led him to slipping in the window of Goro’s apartment with a bucket, mop, gloves, rags, baking soda, white vinegar, and hydrogen peroxide. He didn’t want to let this mess to be here when Goro woke up from his coma. Remembering the marimo Goro had in his room, and that the tank had broken, he figured he should start there first. He knew the marimo was important to Goro, and he didn't want it to die if he could help it. Setting down his supplies, Akira made his way to the kitchen sink, where he was able to locate a cup after a fashion and fill it full of water. He walked down the hall, taking notice of all the damage, and found the marimo in a sea of broken glass and netting. When Akira picked up the marimo, he was concerned, because the algae was mostly dry and flat, but a small squeeze released an air bubble and just a little moisture. The marimo wasn’t entirely dry- there was still hope. Akira dropped the ball into the cup and hoped for the best. He’d keep an eye on the ball over the next couple days, just to be sure. 

Akira decided he may as well start here and move out into the living room, so he left the marimo in the indirect lighting of the bedroom and made his way back out into the living room to retrieve his supplies. Getting started on the blood on the bedroom floor seemed like the best place to start, and between the vinegar, baking soda, and peroxide he had the blood off the floor in a handful of minutes. Goro was lucky he had natural hardwood floors- if he had carpet, this would take much longer. 

Akira picked up the desk chair and moved things around to where he thought he remembered Goro’s stuff to be. Akira eyed the bed sheets and took those off as well- may as well wash these while he’s here. Pulling the sheets off of the bed, the found that some blood had made its way to the bottom corner and Akira sighed. He didn’t bring bleach with him- he’d have to go get some. He was turning to take the sheets out into the living room when a splash of red by the desk caught his eye. Setting the sheets aside, Akira walked back over to the desk and retrieved a familiar bundle of red cards from the shelf. 

They were his calling cards. 

The detective had kept them all. 

There were cards in here that Akira didn’t even remember writing. Ones that playfully flirted with the detective, ones that taunted and teased him. There were even a good handful that had flowers pressed into the paper. 

Akira remembered those more fondly than any of the others. 

Shortly after the incident at Untouchables, Akira realized he had a level of appreciation for Goro that bordered on a crush. He’d acquired Goro’s address from the kidnapping case he’d worked, and at one stupid point he’d gotten it into his head to follow up a heist with a taunting calling card left on Goro’s doorstep. 

_ Dear Detective, _

_ Better luck next time~ _

_ Joker _

The card was a simple one, just to start, but he left the card on his doormat with a single orchid tied to the card by a red ribbon threaded through the corner. Over the few months that he did that, he’d sent Goro dozens of like-minded cards. Always playful, and always with a flower. 

Moonflower, aster, baby’s breath, sakura blossoms, jasmine, tsubaki, amaranth, sunflower, hibiscus, gladiolus. 

At least one petal for each flower he’d sent Goro was pressed onto the appropriate card, or a whole bloom where the flowers were small enough to fit on the card without obscuring the words. Next to each bloom, it appeared that Goro had written the name of the flower, and what the meaning of the flower was in the Hanakotoba. Akira had stopped doing that when Goro appeared to be unaffected by his advances, however teasing, and now Akira was coming to regret that. 

He’d worked part time for a flower shop in the underground mall in Shibuya for nearly a year now, and his manager noticed that he would take these flowers from the blooms they would receive in the mornings. She mentioned to him one day that it looked like he was courting someone, given the kind of flowers that he’d bought, and the fact that he always took the ones that were the most perfect and healthy. At first he didn’t know what to think of that, since he was just taunting the detective and _ maybe _ alluding to the crush he’d found himself hopelessly stuck in, but in truth wasn’t that exactly what he was doing?   
  
Hanasaki was so upset when he’d stopped buying the flowers. 

Smiling to himself at the memory of each card, Akira sat put them back on the desk and turned to observe the room. All that was left in here to clean up were the sheets and the broken cello. Akira didn’t know how to dispose of a cello. Looking up the kind of cello this was, his eyes widened so hard they nearly bulged out of his skull when he saw that price tag. 

Those motherfuckers had a backup team that came into this apartment, _ after _ they kidnapped Goro, to toss the place and destroy whatever they could, which apparently included a custom white cello that cost approximately 863,680 yen _ before _ shipping. 

Akira would never say he was rich, but certainly wasn’t poor, and he definitely didn’t have that kind of money. 

The Glasser cello that Goro purchased, in its standard colors, had a retail value of 701,740 yen with the bag plus the bow and rosin. But Goro, lovely, sweet, extra, fashionista Goro, had to have a white one. Which was _ extra _. Nearly 162,000 yen extra, to be precise. 

The amount of anger that Akira felt right now felt like it was shared between he and Goro. Akira couldn’t do anything to fix the cello. The neck of the cello was entirely broken, splintered off in several places. 

But maybe there _ was _ something he could do? Akira brought the cello and the sheets out into the living room, only groaning a little at the weight of the cello against his sore arms. He leaned the cello against the counter and tossed the sheets into Goro’s hamper. The hamper was in the living room, near the door, which alluded to Akira that the apartment complex had a communal laundry room. He’d deal with that later. 

Akira had a garbage bag full of glass and wood chips that he’d swept up in the bedroom, and brought that out as well. He wasn’t sure he’d gotten all of the glass, but he was going to mop when he was finished so that should pick up the rest. He checked the bathroom and found nothing amiss, or in the hallway closet either. So he settled on using Goro’s broom to sweep up the hallway, leaving the living room as the only damaged room in the apartment. 

There was a lot to do here. 

Whoever came into this apartment must have just wanted to cause havoc, not looking for anything, so they just broke or overturned whatever they could find. Akira gathered up all the air plants and sat them on the counter top- he’d have to get new pots for them later. Akira swept up the soil and terracotta shards off the floor and into the garbage bag. He righted the flipped coffee table and lamp, and set the bucket to fill with hot water in the sink. The bucket was only 1.5 gallons, so at the one gallon mark, Akira took the bucket out and added a cup of vinegar. 

While he mopped up the apartment, Akira put in his bluetooth earpiece and called Futaba. 

“Hey, Oracle, do you have a second?”   
  
“I always have a second for you, Joker, what’s up?” 

“Do you remember that time when you hacked into your uncle’s finances to get him for tax evasion?” 

“Yeeeeeeeees I do! Still proud of that one.” 

“I need you to do something for me.” 

Later that night, Akira slipped soundlessly into Goro’s hospital room. He’d been busy all day, with the apartment and compiling data that Futaba had found on Goro’s mother, and exactly what Shido had been doing with his money. They didn’t have enough to give to Sae yet, but they had certainly made progress. By the time Goro woke up, hopefully he’d have enough to give Sae a good start on her case. For now, though, the attempted murder charge was going to hold, and that’s the best they could ask for, for now. 

He’d made it a habit of giving Goro a kiss on the forehead twice a night, first when he saw him, and then again when he left. Akira liked to think that Goro could feel his presence when he did that, and he hoped it brought the brunet a measure of peace. 

There wasn’t a whole lot to do here, late at night. The guards were still posted outside, so Akira had to be extremely quiet to eliminate all risk that the guards would hear him. 

That didn’t stop him from talking, though. 

Akira had read somewhere that sometimes, coma patients could hear things going on in their surroundings. He hoped that was true, but even if it wasn’t it helped Akira to just be able to talk to Goro, and know he could potentially be listening. 

He told Goro about his day in low whispering tones. He told him about the apartment. He told him they’d acquired more evidence stating that Miyu had been murdered. More files and photos of the crime scene some industrious CSI took and had hidden in the depths of the police archives. He told Goro about Shido’s status, and that right now the only thing they can stick to him is two counts of attempted murder, but they were working on it. Apparently, Sae told him that Shido has already tried bribing the guards and lawyers, but all the people dealing with him are Sae’s people, and he wasn’t going to get out so easily. 

“I’m… sorry, about the flowers I stopped sending you. I didn’t know you were collecting them. I didn’t think you’d… at first it started out as a means of teasing you- about how you couldn’t catch me. But after a while, I… wanted them to mean more. And it seemed like you didn’t notice, so I stopped.” 

Akira grasped Goro’s hand, trying not to think about how Goro couldn’t grasp his hand in return. 

“You had better wake up soon. I have something I need to tell you.” 

All Akira heard in return was the beeping of the machines around Goro’s bed, but that was okay. His head came down to rest by Goro’s hand, and he closed his eyes. 

This would have to do, for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heheheheheeeeee 
> 
> Hacking into finances. 
> 
> Until next time, where I promise one last ADORABLE and FLUFFY flashback before the end of my story! <3


	13. Like a Symphony

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE FLASHBACK CHAPTER I PROMISED HAS ARRIIIVVVEEEEDD!!! 
> 
> This one also gave me some problems, but luckily Prompt_Master read through some of the awkward bits and helped me iron them out! I really owe you a lot! :)))
> 
> Polaris will only be a couple more chapters after this, maybe two at max. 
> 
> I've also decided to open my Tumblr to commissions! Feel free to message me there if you'd like me to write something for you! :D I'm also always open to collab works as well! My messenger is ALWAYS open <3

For all that Akira knew that the white cello was important to Goro, Akira has only ever heard him play it a handful of times. The first of which was after a particularly rough day for the detective. This was about a year into the detective's chase, and tonight was the night Joker had decided to begin leaving Goro flowers. 

If Akira were honest with himself, this was the night he fell in love with the detective.

The heist planned that night seemed to be a simple one- stealing bank statements from a museum curator who was selling counterfeit portraits. This was a request Joker had taken from Yusuke, who claimed he would prefer if Joker handled it personally while he was keeping tabs on the artist of the counterfeits himself. Joker had slipped in to the curator’s office to look for any pertinent documents and somehow didn’t notice that the curator’s office had a silent alarm. They later found out that the curator was becoming paranoid, and thought the mob or a hitman was after him, not the Phantom Thieves. The trap worked like a charm, and the police were swarming the museum in minutes. 

Joker’s only warning to the police’s arrival were the sounds of multiple footsteps in the halls. By this point in their rivalry, Goro had learned that if a break-in was called for at a reputable establishment, it was likely the Thieves, and most likely Joker. He treated every break-in as such as a result, which included approaching the building with sirens off, and somehow acquiring building access codes to mask their arrival. 

Cursing under his breath, Joker tucked the USB full of information into his breast pocket and set about finding an exit. He left the curator’s office and hung a left down the hall, but stopped at the sound of footsteps and the glaring of flashlights off the walls. He ducked into a spare room and waited until they passed before pushing open the door and running in the opposite direction. 

Joker had moved onto the second floor, thinking he could leave from the roof, when a group of police noticed him. 

“Fuck,” Joker skid to a stop and turned, running the other way while three officers called on their radios for backup, claiming they’d found him. 

He had to lose these guys, and fast. 

Dashing down the hall towards the stairs, the police chased him up the stairs to the third floor. The roof access wasn’t far from here, but the police had doubled in numbers and were gaining on him fast. Joker turned a corner with a little less grace than usual and slammed right into a familiar blur of brunet hair. Before he could think twice about it, Joker pushed the detective backwards and into a thankfully unlocked storage closet and locked it behind him. 

“Wha-”    
  
Joker reached up to the slightly taller man and placed a red-gloved finger over his lips with a “Shhh.” 

What was more shocking to Akira was that the detective  _ did _ silence himself. 

That was when they both came to the realization of their position. 

They were pressed chest to hip, wine red eyes staring startled into slate. A jagged grin spread across Joker’s lips, teasing and full of something wicked. “Hello there, detective,” Joker breathed. He wanted to laugh- Akechi seemed to sway and he seemed to be in a bit of a shock. 

For Goro’s part, he hadn’t expected at all for Joker to come barreling into him. He’d heard the call and moved to intercept them when the raven shoved him into this closet. Now he was… trying to find his words. Rationally, he knew he should make as much noise as possible to alert his colleague, but something had him rooted to the spot. Maybe it was Joker’s finger still over his lips. Maybe it was those playful and taunting eyes glimmering up at him. Maybe it was those lips spread into that  _ godforsaken _ smile that somehow both angered Goro and appeared in his dreams. 

Maybe it was how he smelled, sweaty yet rich. A dark undertone that somehow also smelled spicy. 

It was then that Goro realized that, were he a brave man, this encounter would be going  _ very _ differently. 

“I- how,” Goro couldn’t form a sentence to save his life. He was pushed up against some kind of maintenance cart, his back bowed just slightly as he tried to bend away from Joker. It backfired on him, though, and just brought their bodies closer. Joker seemed to find it entertaining, and chuckled in response. 

The police chasing Joker rounded the corner and stopped in front of their hiding spot. Joker crowded himself against the detective, pushing their bodies firmly together. 

For a single, tense moment, neither man moved. 

Goro was certain Joker could hear the pounding of his heart against his ribcage. 

The thief was panting against his throat, struggling to catch his breath. Goro should find it disgusting, the hot breath brushing feather-light against his pulse, but in reality chills raced down his spine and pooled somewhere below his stomach. 

If his colleagues opened that door and found them in such a compromising position, he’d likely lose his job immediately. Or at least he’d be reprimanded and rumors would spread about the two of them being…  _ involved _ . 

Goro could only imagine what Shido would say. 

The cops outside looked around the nearby offices and tried the lock of the storage closet. Goro breathed in a gasp and grabbed onto Joker’s lapels with white knuckles under his gloves. Joker moved his hands to Goro’s hips. 

He definitely was  _ not _ going to think about how that was helping him calm down at the present time.

Goro thought that he would never again underestimate exactly how long a minute could feel. Seconds ticked by, one after another, and the police outside just didn’t seem to be  _ going away _ ! Goro’s pulse thudded against his throat, his heart beating so fast he was sure it would stop. Finally, after what felt like hours but was likely just a few minutes, the police moved on, heavy boots signaling their departure.

Joker sighed with relief and looked back up at Goro, “I appreciate your help, Detective,” he grinned, low and lethal, “Until we meet again,” he hummed, whisper soft a breath away from his lips before he turned and unlocked the door. He opened it and walked out, just sauntering down the hall, whistling a tune.

Goro stood there, red-faced, one hand on the cart and the other physically trying to still his erratic heart over his chest. His legs shook, his breath was short, and he  _ burned _ . 

Forcing himself to stop standing there like an idiot, Goro forced himself into the hall and looked for Joker, but he was long gone. 

Goro fumed at his failure, but more at the  _ gall _ of the Phantom Thief Joker. 

Two hours later found Goro throwing his phone with force into the sofa cushion, groaning with frustration. Shido had spent the last forty-five minutes berating him for his recent failure. As much as Goro didn’t like it, Shido was right in that his inability to capture Joker made him seem incompetent, however Shido didn’t understand. Shido wasn’t  _ there _ . 

He wasn’t there to see how easily the thief had disarmed him with a closed space and that  _ smirk _ . 

Every time he thought he had Joker cornered, the thief would find some way to slip between his fingers. Joker had a network of capable people helping him- Goro only had armed backup and he didn’t want the thief dead. He wanted him arrested. Those were two very different things and that Shido couldn’t make that distinction should probably set off more red flags in Goro than they did. 

Goro had to do something with his hands. Something to take his mind off of tonight. Off of Shido and his expectations, off of the way his body set on fire with the thief so close to him. Goro looked outside- the weather was nice. It was a warm summer night, and there was a light, cool breeze. It was the perfect kind of night to open his window for this. 

Joker wasn’t sure exactly how to feel about his encounter with the detective today. Yes, he played it cool as he left, but inwardly his brain ceased to function around the time that Joker’s face was close enough to Goro’s pulse to feel it thrumming against his nose. After that, the entire world slowed down and Joker became hyper aware of everything about the detective he could sense. The detective smelled sweet, almost like sugar, with an undercurrent of something earthy and warm. The detective smelled absolutely divine, even though they’d been running for several minutes before he’d thrown them into that closet. 

The fists balled up in his jacket were covered with high-quality leather. Joker had always figured the gloves were genuine, but he didn’t think they’d be so soft. They hardly creaked at all as the brunet gripped onto his lapels. 

Those eyes, though, were enough to bring Joker to his knees if he thought about them hard enough. Wine-red and bright, a depth to them that nearly  _ sparkled _ . Joker had never seen them up close, and definitely hadn’t expected what he’d found once he was. Goro had a level of  _ danger _ in his eyes that Joker was entirely addicted to, and he wondered what would have to happen in order to get a first-hand glimpse with what was beneath that pleasant exterior. 

Joker had acquired Goro’s address from Futaba a while ago, when he’d investigated the kidnapping case for the detective. That was about a month ago, and since then he’s only had one further brush with the law on this side of town- a heist that he’d completed on one of Goro’s rare days off of work. Joker had been sure to complete the heist as silently as possible, and to this day he was sure that the precinct wasn’t even aware the heist had ever taken place. At the time, it had been imperative to Akira to make sure the detective wasn’t disturbed.

Like a ghost, Akira moved as quietly as he could up the rusty fire escape, when he heard something. 

Music. 

Someone was playing music. 

A rich tone filtered down from the apartment at the highest level of the complex, on the corner facing the street. Right within the path of the fire escape. 

That was Goro’s apartment. 

Moving up to the top level, which only happened to be the third floor, Joker realized that Goro’s window was open. The window faced the alley at the side of the building and was right above Joker’s head from his position, crouched on the fire escape. Risking a tiny peek, Joker looked in the open window and saw Goro sitting in a chair, his white cello in front of him with his red bow singing across the strings. He was playing a mournful melody, rich and deep, and it didn’t sound like anything Joker had ever before heard. Attracted like a sailor to a siren, Joker sat down on the fire escape to listen to the beautiful music Goro was playing from his cello. 

It seemed to Joker that Goro composed his own songs, since each arrangement was different and entirely unique. One of them was lofty and bright, another one somber and morose. With each dip and drag of the bow across the strings of the cello, Goro managed to create a song that both filled Joker’s heart and clenched at it in his chest. 

Goro was an incredibly talented cellist. 

After a moment of silence, which Joker verified as Goro messing with the knobs at the top of the cello before settling back down, Goro began to play a different kind of tune. One Joker  _ had _ heard before- it was the tune Joker was whistling earlier today. 

Joker didn’t know that tune was part of a song. He just heard it around town every once in a while, and it stuck inside his head. On Goro’s cello, however, he made the light and airy tune something so rich it almost sounded hallowed. Joker smiled to himself, sitting there under Goro’s window, and closed his eyes to listen to Goro’s music. 

A fluttering feeling toyed with his chest. He decided he wouldn’t name the feeling yet, but he wasn’t opposed to it taking up space within his heart, where he would let Goro reside. 

After a few more songs just like that, and Joker was half asleep, Goro stopped playing. Joker came back to himself just enough to realize he was going to stop for the night, and leaned up to peek at the detective through his window. Sure enough, Goro was standing now, looking at his cello with a small, genuine smile. Akira had never seen an honest smile out of him before, and he found he preferred the real deal over the plastic copy. 

Goro took the cello with great care back into what was likely his own bedroom, and Joker knew this was when he had to take his leave. 

The next morning, when Goro opened his door to leave for work, he found a small, white cube on his door mat, tied with a red silk ribbon. 

Picking it up to inspect it, Goro turned it over to find that it was a cake of Pirastro Goldflex rosin. While Goro was not in dire need of any more rosin, he definitely recognized the brand. He brought the cube inside and untied the ribbon from the side. Opening the box, he found a satin cloth containing a cake of amber rosin, speckled with flecks of gold throughout. 

The gesture was incredibly thoughtful, and the rosin was beautiful and came from a dependable brand. Checking around the packaging, he couldn’t figure out who had sent him this gift. 

Until, that is, he picked up the ribbon. 

Embroidered on the end of the ribbon was a small, black “J.” 

Somehow, some way, Joker had heard him playing last night, and decided to leave him this gift. 

All throughout work that day, if his coworkers asked him why he seemed so skittish, he’d become a blushing mess. 

Shido had never really given him “gifts,” per se. A gift is something given with no expectation of anything in return. Shido would buy him things, like his first cello, under the broad term of “gift,” in that they were something  _ he _ bought to give to  _ Goro _ , but there was always a caveat. Always something Shido hoped to gain from the giving of the gift. Better grades, financial dependency, dropping his name in an interview, etc. Everything came with a cost. 

That rosin was the first real gift Goro had ever received. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a TON of fun writing this chapter, and I hope you all enjoyed it! 
> 
> Up next: Goro awakens! 
> 
> Until next time! <3


	14. Awake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SO SORRY THIS IS LAAAAAATE yesterday was rough, and I only was able to finish half of it. But here it is! Chapter 14!
> 
> I've opened my Tumblr to commissions! Please message me there if you'd like to talk about me writing something for you! My name is Pastel-Didactic on Tumblr. :D 
> 
> Here we goooo!

Being shot was unexpectedly painless. It felt like a sledgehammer had hit home with full force onto the space next to his left side ribs. The bullet felt a hundred times its size and felt as though it took out the entire left side of its body as it lodged in his abdomen. Air was pushed out of his lungs, his body went into shock. Sensation came across his body in waves, adrenaline misfiring and his brain struggling to understand what had happened to his body. Goro had fallen back against the dirty ground of the alleyway and instinctively curled in on his side, as if that would get the sensations to stop. Goro wanted to move, wanted to get out of there, but all the strength had left his body. Something in his stomach  _ burned _ . His brain barely registered it as the same kind of feeling one has when in acid reflux. 

His body began to tingle, his vision began to swarm. A darkness closed in on him that had nothing to do with the rain falling into his eyes. 

He heard footsteps running up to him, and Akechi Goro perceived no more. 

Somewhere, suspended in time, Goro dreamed. 

He dreamed that he was floating on fog, and his body wouldn’t move. He tried many times- he tried commanding his arms to lift or his legs to bend, and instead of success he received no response from any of his limbs. He tried opening his mouth to speak, but could only produce silence. 

He couldn’t feel much, just a soft presence of peace every once in a while, accompanied by a quiet voice he couldn’t register, before feeling singularly alone once again. 

Had he died? 

He felt like he’d died. Though if he had, this was a poor excuse for an afterlife. Maybe he wasn’t dead? Was there a chance he’d survived? He hoped so. There were so many things he never got to say. 

Goro wasn’t sure how quickly time was passing in the fog. What felt like a few minutes could have been days, or even weeks. Eventually, panic settled in to boredom, and Goro kept trying to move. Eventually, he felt the sensation of breaching the water after being held under for just long enough to lose breath, and he tried moving his arm once again. 

His hand clenched.

It was weak, but it was a grip, and he’d take it after so long of no range of motion. 

What felt like a heavy partition closed over his eyes finally came down, and Goro was able to open his eyes. 

A persistent beeping was the first thing he became aware of, and along with that came nothing but silence. The smell of antiseptic registered second, and Goro was able to deduce that he was in a hospital. He tried gripping his hand again and it did indeed respond to him, however it appeared that something warm was resting on the back of his hand. Even though moving his head felt like moving a sixty ton brick, Goro tilted his head slightly to find that his hand had been absorbed by a familiar plume of fluffy, black curls. 

Akira was fast asleep, with his head on the bed next to Goro’s right hip. His arm was somewhere in there, presumably trapped under his cheek. Akira’s right arm was up on the bed, his hand grasping carefully at Goro’s own. 

Goro vaguely wondered if Akira ever left. 

The raven in question hummed, taking in a deep breath of air, and lifted his head off the mattress. He turned his head to look at Goro and definitely was  _ not _ expecting to meet his eyes. 

Akira shot up out of the bed, beaming a gorgeous smile at him that nearly made Goro pass out again. Akira’s hand rested on his cheek, his thumb brushing along his cheekbone. 

“Hello there, detective,” Akira whispered, that Joker smirk coming through on his face now. 

Goro smiled, very small and careful, and leaned his face into Akira’s hand. 

Leaning over, Akira pressed a relieved kiss to Goro’s forehead and reached over to press the “Help” button. “I’m not supposed to be here right now, but I’ll wait outside.” As quick as he could, Akira was out the window and hiding in the bushes underneath. 

The nurses dashed into the room while one of them paged for the doctor on duty. Suddenly, Goro was swarmed with people who checked his pulse and vitals, removed some of the cables attached to him now that he was awake, and was asking him what he’d like to eat in the way of broth or light soup. 

Akira waited until all the nurses were gone and Goro had his soup when he slipped back into the room. Goro was sitting up now- or more like, his bed was reclined upwards and so too was he as a result. He sat on the side of Goro's bed and ran a hand through his hair. "I was so worried," he said softly, "I found you and… I thought I was going to lose you." 

Goro smiled softly at Akira and shook his head, “I’m sorry I worried you,” he rasped. Akira handed him his cup of water without him needing to ask. Goro had never been any kind of pampered before this, and honestly he wasn’t sure what to do with it. He sipped carefully on his water while Akira watched him in silence just in case he needed help. Once Goro felt he had a better handle on his voice, he looked back up at Akira and whispered, “What happened?”    
  
Wasn’t that the question of the hour? Akira fiddled with his bangs, debating on what to say. Goro had just woken up- he wasn’t in any state to hear what Akira had found regarding Shido. For now, though, a truncated version would have to suffice. “Shido just… left you there, in the alley. He made a public statement saying that I did it, and that he was going to hunt me down for it.” Goro grimaced, but said nothing, so Akira continued, “I found you there and we called an ambulance. I had to leave you with one of my people so I could chase after the dot signal. I wound up breaking into his apartment. I found… a sizable amount of evidence against him… and I was on my way back here when I learned he’d made a second attempt on your life.” 

“What?”   
  
“He tried to put air in your IV- it would have killed you.” Goro’s grimace somehow intensified. To soothe him, Akira took Goro’s hand into his own and rubbed his thumb over Goro’s knuckles, “I tracked him down, though. I chased him down the street and we ended up fighting in a random office building in town- you should have seen it. I’m pretty proud of that fight.” 

“You fought him? And I didn’t get to see it?” 

“He has a nice black eye now, and is probably missing a few teeth. Compliments of Joker,” Akira laughed, bringing Goro’s hand up to his lips. He placed a small kiss on the back of his hand, relishing in Goro’s resulting blush and spike to his EKG meter. “Careful with that. I don’t want to get caught here.” 

Goro blushed even harder and glared at the machine next to his bed. “I just wish I was there. I had choice words I wanted to say. And specific places I wanted to kick. He’s likely bought his way out of jail by now and is thousands of miles away on some beach.” 

Akira shook his head, “Goro, they arrested him.” 

“What?”

“They arrested him for attempted murder- one of my people, her sister, and a nurse saw him try to kill you. We’ve been building the case ever since, based on what I found and… Your quick thinking with that bug- Goro, it probably is the best evidence we have. I’m  _ so proud _ of you.” Goro blushed again, looking back down into his water like it had all the answers in the universe. 

There were so many things they needed to talk about- Goro’s condition, his mother, Shido’s case. But for now, Goro had to rest. 

Akira leaned over and placed another kiss on Goro’s head- this time on his cheek. “You should sleep, Goro. You need to rest.” 

“Will you be here when I wake up?” 

Akira hesitated- the nurses probably wouldn’t let him in; after all, he wasn’t family. But it seemed to be important to Goro that he was here, and Akira definitely didn’t want to leave him. 

So Akira gripped his hand, reassuring and warm, and whispered, “Yes.” 

True to his word, Akira remained with Goro throughout the day. He continuously had to dodge hospital staff and doctors, and he accomplished most of that by hiding under the bed. Now that Goro was safely out of his coma, his IV was removed and they kept an eye on his hydration, but other than that he seemed to be recovering well. They planned to move him out of the ICU in a day or two, which was good for Akira. He could see him at that point without fuss. 

When Goro woke again, the time was past 6PM. Akira was there, just as he had promised. Some irrational part of Goro thought that Akira wouldn’t be there. That he had other obligations or needed to leave for Phantom Thieves purposes. Instead, he was there, reading a novel. 

“Hey,” Akira hummed, as soon as he saw that Goro was awake. 

“Hi,” Goro responded, bleary and a little dazed. “How are you feeling,” Akira asked, brushing his hair out of the way of his face. 

“Mmph.” Well, Akira supposed that was as good of a response as any. The doctors had started him on antibiotics in the hopes that whatever stomach acid did escape didn’t infect anything. They had removed most if not all of it, but the fear was still there. A stomach wound can go so horrible in so many little ways. His recovery was going well and pretty quickly, so Akira had hope. 

“When Shido shot you, he missed an artery by about two inches,” Akira explained, “They were afraid you’d bleed to death, so most of your time here has been in a coma. You’re going to feel a little dazed for a while.” Goro pouted what could possibly have been the most adorable of pouts that Akira had ever seen, which made his stomach flutter a little bit as his emotions swelled. “They’re optimistic, though. It didn’t hit your spine or lodge anywhere. It wasn’t a through and through, but it didn’t get stuck or shatter, which is the most important part.” 

“What happened with Shido,” Goro asked, rubbing at his face with his hands. “Still in lockup. They’re analyzing the evidence right now, trying to get as many charges as they can to stick.”    
  
“Even the bug data?”    
  
“... After a fashion, yes.” Akira remembered the look on Makoto’s face when he called Futaba and asked her to somehow garble his name from the two times Shido mentioned him. It was a risk- a very large one. But one they had to take. Sae and her team would have to present the entire audio file to the court, and if his name was revealed in those sections it would be over for him. They had to protect themselves, as well as convict Shido. 

For a while, Akira would be walking on a tightrope, but he believed in Sae. 

“... You won’t get arrested because of me, will you,” Goro asked, a quiet fear in his voice. That was actually an incredibly real possibility. He could very well be outed by Shido on the stand, as a way of trying to get a deal, and Akira could be arrested. 

“I don’t think so. I trust Sae- and she believes in the evidence. She wants Shido convicted and put in jail just as much as the rest of us. I’ll be okay, Goro. I promise.” 

Goro frowned at him, which was not the reaction he was expecting. 

“Don’t make me a promise, Akira, if you don’t know if you’ll be able to keep it.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, yes, my name is Pastel, and I've somehow managed to find the wherewithal to write a few more chapters than expected! :D 
> 
> Next chapter WILL NOT be the end of Polaris! 
> 
> Let me know what you think about this one- I did struggle with it. I've been in the hospital before, but never for a coma, so I'm not sure exactly what the process is when someone wakes up from a medically-induced coma that's only lasted for a couple days. I did the best I could, but please forgive me if it isn't as accurate as expected. All the research I did for this chapter probably put me on a few lists somewhere lmao! 
> 
> Until next time!


	15. A Mother's Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ehehehehehe <3 Lightning fast update before class! 
> 
> This chapter is mostly background, mostly dialogue, so I hope you'll forgive me if it's not very interesting. I wanted to dig into this evidence because it's going to be extremely important for Shido's case, and what's going to happen at the trial. 
> 
> I hope you like it!

She sat at her kitchen table, a cup of tea in front of her. She hadn’t even sipped at it before it had gone cold, and that was ten minutes ago, now. Her heart skipped a beat as tiny, tinkling noises came from her front door. 

They were here. 

She knew they were coming, and had expected them. A quick glance at the clock told her it was 2:34PM. The sight of the time gave her a measure of relief. This would surely take no longer than ten minutes. 

They’d be long gone before he came home. 

A snap at the door and a quiet swear was the only thing that alerted her before her front door was kicked inwards, bouncing off of the wall as it swung back at full force. 

Two men came through her door, and she glared as her fate boiled down to these two men. Silently, she rose from her chair. She was a woman of tough stock- if they thought she’d just surrender quietly, without a fight, they were sorely mistaken. 

Their scuffle lasted a few minutes- she gave one of them a black eye. But eventually, as she had almost expected by this point, they incapacitated her enough to sit her back down in her chair. The teacup hand been swiped off of the table in the fuss, broken on the floor. Cold tea stained her dress, and had splashed on their shoes. 

A lamp was broken in the fight, a curtain had been torn down from its rod. 

The last thing she was going to see was a family photo they had sat down in front of her on the table. 

Akechi Miyu looked down at her son’s carefree, smiling face, and prayed this last act, this last ditch effort to protect him at the cost of her life, wouldn’t take that smile away from the world.

They wrapped her left hand round the gun and pressed it to her temple. 

This would have to be enough.

17 Years Later

In the days while Goro was still unconscious, and directly after Shido’s arrest, the Phantom Thieves needed to remain active and gather evidence of Shido’s wrongdoings. Sae couldn’t get to all of the evidence herself, and there were… less strict laws about where evidence came from these days. So long as it was procured, and existed, it was usually accepted by the court. 

Joker could get to places Sae could not, and Sae had even requested a parlay with the Phantom Thief early into Goro’s recovery to discuss just that. 

Joker showed up to the parlay in his costume, eyeing Sae with trepidation. He trusted her, sure, insofar as she was Makoto’s sister, talented at her job, and cared about Goro. Where he fit in her spectrum, Joker wasn’t sure, but Sae informed him in no uncertain terms that this meeting was for Goro’s sake. If he had fallen in her path and Goro had not been in this situation, she would have attempted to arrest him on the spot. Instead, she was going to make a deal with the devil to put Shido away for as long as she could. 

Akira respected that. 

By way of greeting, Sae cut right to the chase. “As I understand it, Makoto is counted among your group. Is this right?” Akira weighed the pros against the cons of explicit honesty with Sae- She was someone who valued honesty very highly. If he was truthful with her, maybe he could gain her trust. Or at least some semblance of it, which was much more preferable than her animosity.

“Yes. She’s one of my best.” Sae _ tsk _ed in a way that sounded just like Goro when he was upset, and Akira had to hold back a smile. 

“So, obviously it’s difficult for me to remain neutral, since my sister works for you. If I take down the Phantom Thieves, Makoto does down too. That’s why I’ve settled on this deal: You help me take down Shido, and I won’t arrest you yet. Not here, not for as long as this case persists. Once Shido is in jail, if you insist on continuing to operate, I will take the case back from Goro and hunt you down. Do you accept my conditions?” 

Okay. That was fair. Sae was risking her entire career even having this meeting with him. She was willing to work with him until Shido was put in prison, however long that would be during this case. Once Shido was put away, the chase was back on, and Sae would be the one after him instead of Goro. Akira could work with that. 

He had something he wanted to ask Goro, anyway. 

“...Deal,” Joker replied, after just a breath of hesitation. Sae nodded at him, and sighed heavily, “Alright, then. What have you found so far?” 

Akira took a deep breath and reached into his breast pocket. He hesitated, “I want you to know that I am trusting you with this, because Goro would trust you with it. If I find that this evidence has been destroyed or swept under a rug to be forgotten, the deal is off.” 

Whatever evidence Joker had must be big, Sae realized, and potentially vital to her case. Sae nodded, “I won’t rest until Shido is put away, Joker. I will investigate whatever you give me. No tricks, no lies.” 

Silence pervaded the alley in which they’d chosen to meet, until finally Joker nodded, and carefully handed her an old, folded up piece of paper. Sae unfolded this paper, and after a moment of reading it, looked back up to Joker with an astonished expression on her face. “Where on Earth did you find this!?” 

“It was in a hollow book in Shido’s apartment. At some point, Shido covered up the homicide and had it declared a suicide. These photos,” Akira pulled out an envelope from his larger side pocket, “were found in the archives, scanned in and labeled as something else to hide them from whoever Shido paid to scrub the cas-”

  
  
“The SIU Director.” Sae’s response was clear and unwavering, and full of malice. 

“Excuse me,” Joker questioned, tilting his head, Sae looked up from the envelope she’d been handed, and elaborated, “The SIU Director is the only person in the precinct that can entirely erase case files and evidence. It requires a special passcode that he received at his swearing-in ceremony. I’m not going to ask that you tell me _ how _, exactly, you received these photos, but I am going to thank you. This might just be exactly what I needed.” 

It was a week later now, and Goro had become increasingly coherent over the days he stayed in the ICU. He was healing well, and the antibiotics were doing their jobs. They were still worried about his spleen and kidneys as a result of the stomach acid that had escaped when his stomach was punctured, so he was going to be kept for at least two more days outside of the ICU. 

On the last day he was to remain in the ICU, Akira was on his way to visit him late at night when he received a ping from Futaba, who patched in Sae to his personal line. 

“Joker. I trust you’re well.” 

“Well enough. What can I do for you this evening?” 

“The next time you see Goro, you can let him know that I have enough evidence to get Shido on his mother’s murder charge.” That was honestly simultaneously both the _ best _ and _ worst _ news Akira had heard all day. “Goro isn’t aware it was a homicide. He only believes his mother killed herself.” 

“_ And you haven’t told him yet because…? _” Sae was scornful when she was angry, though Akira would be lying if he said he didn’t deserve that right now. 

“I didn’t want to upset him while he’s recovering.” It sounded like a valid reason, but coming from his lips in defense of himself, it only sounded like an excuse. Sae sighed at him and reminded him that it was his responsibility to be honest with Goro, especially if he wanted to remain in the detective’s good graces. Akira hung up after promising Sae he’d tell Goro tonight, and he slipped through the window of Goro’s room once he reached it. 

Goro was awake, sitting up in bed, and greeted him with a smile. 

This was going to hurt. 

Akira sat down on the side of Goro’s bed, greeting him with his now habitual forehead kiss. Goro blushed, and seemed to be ready to say something when he noticed Akira’s stony expression. “What’s wrong, Akira?” 

“I have some news, and I need you to hear me out.” 

Goro’s smile dropped like a stone and he seemed to add up plausible responses, “Please tell me you aren’t going to be arrested or turn yourself in to the police.” 

Akira chuckled- that seemed to be something Goro was hung up on, and while that was a rational and very real, present fear, Akira didn’t think he’d have to deal with that possibility for a while yet. “No, Goro. It’s about Shido.” 

Taking a shuddering breath, Akira said, “The good news is that we have Shido nearly dead-to-rights for a first degree murder charge.” Goro sighed, a wave of relief rolling through him. “Really? I was so scared, Akira, don’t-”  
  
“Goro, I’m not done.” 

Akira watched as some kind of fear settled in to his eyes. Goro was silent for a while, then looked down at his hands. They were tense in their silence for a good while, as Goro mulled over the potential news, and Akira gave him time to think. 

“It’s about my mother, isn’t it?” 

This was something Goro had suspected for a while now, but what he hadn’t expected was for his suspicions to be true. Goro wasn’t born yesterday- he was aware that staged suicides were a very real thing, and had worked a small handful of cases of that very nature. After a while, it was just easier to believe the things he was told- that his mother killed herself, that it was his fault- instead of fighting against the tide. But then… she must have known about Shido’s corruption. Must have known about Shido’s plans for him, as their son. She had a child out of wedlock to a powerful politician. Shido’s logic would have dictated that she be silenced immediately for the sake of Shido’s campaign efforts, however meager they must have been back then for some obscure city council position. A single ding on his reputation would have ruined his entire career. But, on top of that, his mother would have been backed into a corner. As a single mother in a traditional society, she would have had difficulty finding work, and any job she did have wouldn’t last for long. She would need to do something to ensure Shido would act to protect his only living legacy. So, she must have become aware that Shido was going to have her killed and just… let them come.

Several feelings made themselves known to Goro all at once. The first of which was grief. He felt as though he had lost his mother all over again. The revelation that she did this to herself, sacrificed herself, to secure his future was just… overwhelming. Then followed sadness, and that feeling one has when their suspicions are confirmed, muddled by even more grief. 

Underlying all of that, was a sudden craving for his mother’s pancakes. 

Goro hadn’t realized he’d been crying until Akira swiped his thumb under his eye to collect the tears. Akira scooted closer to him and wrapped his arms around Goro as best as he could, and Goro did the only thing he could in the revelation that his mother was indeed murdered, and that he still missed her _ so much_. 

Goro laid his head on Akira’s shoulder, and he cried.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I KNOW I SAID MORE FLUFF I'M GONNA GET TO IT I PROMISE! 
> 
> I love you all! 
> 
> Up next: Shido's trial begins, and he does something we probably all expect him to do! 
> 
> Until next time!


	16. The Love Words

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I DID PROMISE THIS WOULD BE OUT TONIGHT 
> 
> It's currently 1:15 AM and I'm the queen of excess.
> 
> I'm not sorry. 
> 
> Shout out to Sora_the_Literal_Disney_Prince for that lovely idea with Goro's heart rate monitor! This one's for you!

Today was the first day of Shido’s trial. 

For obvious reasons, the Diet wanted the proceedings to move as quickly as possible. For such a high level government official to be accused of such crimes… the scandal was already all over the news. Headlines read, “Senator Brought Low by Vigilante Phantom Thief; Trial Today,” and the arrest was all over the news. Sae promised Akira he could have Shido sentenced within three days of the trial’s beginning, but part of him was hesitant to believe her. The evidence against Shido was damning, especially where Akechi Miyu was concerned, but something told him not to let his guard down, in any case. 

Akira spent most of the day at Goro’s apartment, making sure the space was clean and cared for before Goro was released from the hospital later that day. Makoto told him that she would watch the trial for him, just in case Shido did anything that could implicate the Thieves. He’d thanked her profusely for this, because it meant he could spend the first day of the trial with Goro, who was understandably anxious. Akira had purchased a flowering bonsai for his side table, which he had resolved to decorate a week ago. Given the course of events, however, it felt like so much longer than just that. Akira felt like years had passed, when it had really only been days. The sooner all of this was over, the better. 

In the middle of the apartment, Akira set up his second gift, wondering if it would be received well by the brunet. He hadn’t exactly… told him… about the cello. Akira knew he loved his cello about as much as he loved his marimo, if not more, since he’d obviously put a lot of passion into his playing over the years. To learn that his very expensive cello had been utterly destroyed would absolutely devastate Goro, and that was not what they wanted when Goro was supposed to be focused on his healing. 

Done with all of that, Akira left the apartment through the window once again and headed towards the hospital. It wasn’t often Akira actually walked the streets on this side of town, since as Joker he usually used the rooftops, but within the last week he’s found a lot of things he’s actually liked. There was a pastry place that he was  _ sure _ Goro frequented on the corner, with a cute sign hanging over the door and fresh displays every morning. An antique bookstore wasn’t far, and either was a park. This was a wonderful neighborhood. 

Akira vaguely wondered how much it cost to live here. 

Reaching Goro’s hospital room window, Akira let himself in to find Goro standing. Akira was surprised, given that he was usually in bed when Akira got to him. “Where’s the fire,” Akira asked, wrapping his arms around his detective. 

“I needed to stand up and walk around a little. I’m losing my fucking mind just sitting here, wondering what Shido’s telling them-”    
  
“Don’t worry about that. Just focus on healing.”    
  
“I can’t just  _ do that, _ Akira! Do you know how easily this bastard can get you put in jail? What if he outs you in front of the judge? You’ll be-” 

“I know, Goro, don’t panic. It’s all going to turn out. We have to trust Sae.”

Goro stopped his rant and sighed. He absolutely  _ hated _ being interrupted, and part of him wanted to yell at Akira for it, but that was just his nerves. The bottom line was that Akira was right. There was nothing Goro could do from here, and all they were capable of doing was waiting until news came from either Sae or Akira’s people. In the end, everything was in Sae’s hands. He had to trust the process. 

Goro leaned his forehead on Akira’s shoulder and nodded. Akira hugged him close and the two of them remained in silence for a while before Goro said, “I had a nightmare that you were arrested because of my audio device.” 

“I had one of my people scramble the-” Now it was Akira’s turn to be interrupted, as Goro looked at him with an indignant glare. “Your people. Why don’t I know their names? Or even their code names? What if something happens to you- who do I contact?” 

That was right- Goro didn’t know  _ any _ of his confidants. “I’m sorry,” Akira breathed, “I’m used to keeping them as far in the dark as possible. I’ll see about getting you in contact with Oracle. She’s my navigator, and the creator of those GPS locators. She connects us.” 

  
  
“For fuck’s sake, Akira, how many people do you  _ have _ ?”    


“Actual thieves, or in total?” 

Goro’s eyebrow twitched, “ _ Actual thie-  _ Surprise me.” 

“Twenty in total.” 

Goro’s sigh was the most exasperated he’d ever heard from Akira, and Akira chuckled in response. “No wonder I could never find you outside of your heists. And there’s  _ more than one of you. _ ” 

Akira laughed, “Well, yes, Japan is a big place, Goro. I can’t be everywhere.” Goro deflated in his arms and sighed again, electing to wrap his own arms around Akira instead and rest his chin on the raven’s shoulder. They fell back into a more comfortable silence, Akira gently rocking them from side to side in an almost dance. Goro closed his eyes and simply held Akira, his inner anxiety afraid that this would be the last time he would be able to do so. 

He knew Shido. He knew what the man was capable of, and Goro knew that Shido definitely didn’t want to go to jail. He’d do anything to stay out of it. Especially giving up the Phantom Thief Joker, public enemy number one. It felt like it was only a matter of time before Shido shifted the focus of the trial onto Joker, and Akira’s name would be on every headline in the world. 

To say that Goro was scared is an understatement, to say that he was  _ pissed _ is an even bigger one. 

Goro was willing to fight, and had the ability to fight, for Akira’s freedom. He would absolutely do it, no contest. Shido didn’t have the fucking  _ right _ , and if that bald bastard thought he could get away with something as stupid as pinning his misfortune on Akira, he was sorely mistaken! But he wouldn’t be able to do this alone. He needed to be in contact with Akira’s people- his rather large net of confidants. Akira needed to trust him with at least some way to get a hold of them, so they could work together. 

It would be easier if- 

“Hey.” 

Goro pulled away enough to look at Akira, meeting his eyes with curiosity. “I know that this might be overstepping some boundaries, given our previous history, but,” Akira paused, weighing words on his tongue he wasn’t sure he had the strength to say. 

Goro had a feeling that the Phantom Thief had somehow read his mind.    
  
“Why don’t you join us? From a team standpoint, we could definitely use your intelligence. But… from a personal standpoint, I just… I’d like you to think about it, okay? You don’t have to answer right now. But… think about it.” 

Goro sighed and smiled at Akira. His answer should be obvious by now, but they did have bigger things to worry about than him joining a group of vigilantes. He would give him his answer when this was all over; all the more incentive to make it through this. Goro reached a hand up to run through Akira’s curly hair, marveling at how soft it was. “Akira… At the risk of sounding like a complete idiot, can I tell you something?” 

“Of course,” Akira breathed, leaning his forehead up the scant inch it would take to rest on Goro’s. 

What Goro had to say felt as though it had been a year and a half in the making. A breath in lead to a breath out, and Goro steeled himself for whatever reaction was to come from Akira as he opened his mouth and said one sentence he thought he would never have the opportunity to say to the Phantom Thief Joker:    
  
“I love you.” 

Akira smiled something bright and  _ overjoyed _ across his lips as he pulled Goro back down for another kiss. This kiss was desperate and deep, happy and full of love. Goro could feel what affection Akira had for him, and it was  _ powerful _ against his lips. He felt his heart jump in response and he tugged Akira closer for more intimacy. Sure enough, however, Goro’s heart rate monitor that he was to be tethered to until morning began to beep incessantly. 

They parted roughly, and Akira could hear the running of nurses down the hall. “Shit,” Akira swore, and slid himself under the bed. 

  
  
“What the fuck are you-” 

  
  
“Akechi-san! Are you okay,” Two crash nurses came dashing into the room, to find Goro standing there, gripping his EKG stand with white knuckles and trying not to sputter at the object of his affections currently crammed under his hospital bed. 

“I- I’m fine. Just felt a little lightheaded as I stood up.” The excuse was flimsy and garbage to his own ears, but he’d accept it, and apparently so did the nurses, who took him at his word. They got him back into bed with strict orders not to rush anything until the morning, and left. Goro leaned over the side of the bed as best as he can, grumbling at his idiot, “Come out from there, Akira.” 

Akira slid out from under his bed, standing in a fluid motion as if he’d planned on doing that all along. 

“ _ You are insufferable _ ,” was all Goro could say, but he said it with a fond smile. Akira leaned against the bed and replied, “The more you say that, the more inclined I am to be insufferable.” 

“I’m aware. Don’t kiss me with your dirty face you just came out from under the bed,” Goro laughed, ducking away from Akira as he tried to kiss Goro’s pouty lips. 

“I love you, too,” Akira finally replied, wrapping his arms around Goro as best as he could with his angled position. Goro let him kiss him then, a soft thing on his forehead. “I have to go. You need your rest and I have to close up the cafe.” 

“Alright. I’ll see you soon. Let me know if something changes?” 

“You’ll be my first call,” Akira gave Goro a swift kiss goodbye and slipped out the window into the night. 

On his way to the cafe, Akira felt like something was off. The train ride home felt fine, but the closer he got to Leblanc, the more anxious he felt. He had no idea why until he turned off the main path of the alleyway and came face-to-face with Nijima Sae and three cops. 

“Hello,” Akira said, attempting to squeeze past her when her arm shot out and grasped his elbow. 

“You’re lucky I was able to keep it out of the media and stop the police from picking you up with your record,” she hissed, low under her breath. That was when he knew he’d been had. 

“Fuck,” Akira huffed, turning to look at her. 

Sae handed Akira an envelope with the courthouse seal, “Kurusu Akira. Surely you’re no doubt aware of the trial of Shido Masayoshi, which started today. Shido made some allegations against you in court, unrelated to your initial arrest. Given the damage to his reputation, you haven’t been ordered to be arrested on this charge  _ yet _ . However, the premises will be searched and you’re asked to appear in court tomorrow to answer the allegations.” 

  
“Which are…?” 

  
  
“That you are the Phantom Thief Joker.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I KNOW I KNOW DON'T KILL ME 
> 
> It's gonna be fiiiiiiiiiiine! 
> 
> Next chapter: Goro strikes back and goes feral on Shido! 
> 
> Until next time! <3


	17. Crack and Break

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~The Queen of Excess~
> 
> I was in a very Feral Goro mood this morning <3 
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

Goro moved with a purpose down the street, looking so intent and positively murderous that the crowd parted around him as he passed like the Red Sea. 

Akechi Goro was  _ livid _ . 

He’d heard from Sae, who had stopped by his hospital room before he was moved out of the ICU to tell him that she’d served a subpoena to Akira. Curious in her own right after Shido made his allegations, Sae accessed the registry of closed cases and she saw who last accessed Akira’s case file. She couldn’t exactly say she was surprised when she learned that person was Goro. Unable to satiate her curiosity, Sae read the file herself. What she found was that Akira had that one pre-existing arrest and subsequent record, then nothing else. Shido’s name wasn’t listed as the plaintiff even on Sae’s unredacted copy of the file. To the courts, this would look like a separate offense. 

“Why would you like to know, Sae-san? I simply looked it up because I frequent the cafe where he’s serving his probation.” 

“I had to serve him a subpoena last night. It appears Shido thinks he’s the Phantom Thief Joker.”    
  
Goro  _ sputtered _ and looked up at her from his spot on her bed, “ _ You can’t be serious _ .” After he said it, he’d realized that his statement could be taken as disbelief that this had happened. That was fine- Sae could believe that he was in the camp of not believing a single goddamn thing Shido said. In truth, Goro was realizing the actuation of his nightmares, and below his disbelief at Shido’s gall was an unrelenting fear. 

Akira could go to jail over this. There was absolutely no guarantee that Sae would believe him. Sae would search Leblanc and likely find Akira’s costume, or tools, or his calling cards, and then Akira would immediately be arrested! 

Sae shook her head, crossing her arms, “Given the dubiousness of Shido’s credibility right now, Akira has just been told not to leave town until questioning later today and given a summons. I don’t hold too much stock in it- he seems like a harmless young adult. I go to Leblanc too, you know? Finding out that he’s Joker- I just don’t see it.” Well, at least they had that going for them. Goro sighed, scooting to the edge of the bed, “Sae-san… As my superior, I respect you a great deal. As your  _ friend _ , I’m going to tell you something, and I really need you to believe me when I tell you this.” 

This  _ immediately _ got Sae’s attention. She nodded for Goro to continue and he took a deep breath. This could damage  _ so much _ of his standing with Sae, once the truth came out in court, but Goro was willing to risk it. The idea that Joker could go to jail over this was uncomfortable, at best. He had to put himself out in front of this. Anything to soften the case against Akira. 

“You’re going to need me on the stand. You can’t bench me because I’m still recovering. He shot  _ me. _ I’m the best evidence you have, and I can further reduce his credibility in Akira’s case.”    
  
This wasn’t new to Sae. She knew she would eventually need him on the stand, even if that would pause the trial. But the news that he could reduce Shido’s credibility was interesting. “Oh? What kind of information do you have?” 

“More than you have likely gathered already. Beyond that, Shido was the plaintiff in Akira’s case. He just wants to pin this on him and claim that he’s Joker so Shido gets off scott-free. Imagine it- Someone who already has a record for assault becomes the Phantom Thief Joker, commits a gratuitous amount of white collar vigilante crime, and shoots the only bastard son of a candidate for Prime Minister? Sounds too perfect, right?” 

Too perfect. 

Sae left shortly thereafter, promising to keep him apprised of when he’d need to be summoned to testify. As soon as she was gone, Goro slid out of bed and reached for the spare change of clothes he’d asked Akira to bring him from his apartment. His stomach still hurt, but he had a much greater range of mobility now and enough painkillers to hold him over for a while. 

He took a quick but careful shower, changed, and then checked himself out of the hospital. The doctor only let him go if he promised to return once he was either out of painkillers or the painkillers stopped working, whichever came first. 

Which led to his current situation, which was stomping into Shibuya’s lockup, looking at the poor beat cop assigned to front desk duty, and seething his demand to see Shido. Goro had enough time between check out and the walk over here to become  _ just angry enough _ to be positively lethal, which he immediately took out on the poor bastard before him.

The poor cop looked quite like he was about to piss himself with fear, but at this point Goro had absolutely zero sympathy to give him. The cop looked at Goro, then back down to the sign-in sheet. 

_ Technically _ , Goro was required to sign the sheet. He was aware of that- he’d done his time assigned to duty in here. For one tense moment, Goro was sure the detective was about to request that he sign the paper. But this cop simply pushed the document aside, and opened the gate for Goro. “I can give you five minutes, before my supervisor comes back,” he said quietly, fearfully, and Goro only nodded his thanks.    
  


Rounding the corner and seeing Shido, standing in his little cage and looking so smug, was just about enough for Goro. The brunet came to stand in front of him, and Shido sneered down his nose at him. Shido was still sporting bruises and a black eye that  _ must _ have been from his fight with Akira. If he wasn’t so absolutely, unabashedly livid right now, Goro would be proud. Instead, he simply leveled Shido with the most intense glare he could possibly manage, which wasn’t quite enough to catch Shido off guard, but it did make him laugh. 

Which was worse.

“Upset? Your little love affair is going to be destroyed once I have Joker arrested. His court case will quickly overtake mine, and I can quietly buy my way out of prison. All I had to do was shoot you. Imagine that, right? If I’d known, I would have done it soon-” 

Goro had already heard enough. 

Reaching through the bars faster than Shido could anticipate, Goro grabbed a hold of Shido’s expensive tie and used it to pull Shido’s face into the bars as fast and as hard as he could manage. A satisfying crunch was heard as the bridge of Shido’s nose met the bars and broke with the force. Shido shouted and stumbled backwards, dipping into a crouch as a fountain of blood poured down his face and onto his clean, pressed suit. There wasn’t time to change before the trial- Shido was just going to have to live with it. Goro glared at the doorway- there was no way the beat cop outside hadn’t heard that. Goro was absolutely sure he had, but the man seemed smart, because he didn’t even think to check on them. 

Perfect. 

“Listen to me,” Goro hissed, crouching to pick Shido up again by the tie and draw him close to his face. His tone was surprisingly level and cold, which visibly unnerved the cowering man in front of him, “The  _ last _ fucking thing on this Earth you have to worry about isn’t Akira. It isn’t Sae. It isn’t what evidence we have that proves you’re a fucking shitstain. It’s  _ me. _ You made the absolute worst mistake you could ever make, not killing me on the goddamn spot in that alley. Instead, you wanted sympathy points. You wanted old people to feel bad for you so they can check your name on a goddamn box. That has presented me with a unique opportunity.” 

Shido attempted to squirm away from Goro, so Goro tightened Shido’s tie around his throat and brought him closer. Shido struggled for air as Goro seethed, “I’m going to get on that stand, and I’m going to tell them every single dirty fucking thing you have ever done. I’m going to give them proof, I’m going to show them text messages and bank statements. Then, when Sae’s ready with her evidence, I’m going to tell them all about mom, and there isn’t a single goddamn thing you can do to stop me.” 

“I’m going to drag this case out so long, you’ll think you’ve died and gone to hell.” 

Goro dropped Shido, who sputtered on the ground for air. Goro straightened himself carefully, minding his injury, which screamed at him from all the bending. “I wish I could say I feel bad about coming in here to threaten you, but you’ve long since stopped deserving any kind of mercy from me.”    
  
With that, Goro left the lockup facility with a nod to the cop at the desk, who was significantly more pale than he was when Goro had arrived. 

His next stop was to the courthouse. 

True to what Goro was expecting, when he walked into the lobby, he found Akira talking with Sae. The trial wasn’t for another hour, but Sae must have instructed that he appear early. It made sense, but right now all Goro could do was seethe. He was still angry- angry at Shido, at the system. His anger must have been clear on his face when he approached Sae, because when he grabbed Akira’s wrist and excused them for a moment, she didn’t try to stop them. 

Ignoring all of Akira’s questions, Goro found an empty conference room and pushed the raven inside without preamble. 

“Goro, I’m glad to see you, but what are you doing-” Akira hadn’t the time to finish his sentence, because Goro locked them in the room and advanced on him, backing him up until Akira’s back reached the wall, and the words died in his throat. 

“I went to see Shido, and I’m still pissed. I thought giving him a piece of my mind would help, but I’m just… still so pissed off. Can I-”    
  
“Yeah. Of course,” Akira breathed, wrapping his arms around Goro. Leaning down just slightly, Goro rested his head on Akira’s shoulder and sighed. “I won’t let you be arrested,” he said with a complete and utter conviction that clenched at Akira’s heart, “Do you know if they found anything?” 

“They didn’t. They didn’t find anything.”    
  
“Are you  _ sure _ ?”    
  
“Yeah, Goro. They didn’t bring any cameras, leave with anything, or ask me any questions, and all my stuff was right where I left it. They didn’t find anything.” 

“Okay.” 

The two of them fell into quiet silence, Akira soothing Goro as best as he could, drawing his hand up and down Goro’s back and leaving soft kisses on his temple. Akira was confident he’d be okay. He put his fate into Sae’s hands now- and the lawyer would have to decide which one she wanted to crucify more: Joker, or Shido. Honestly? Akira wasn’t scared. Not at all. They had enough evidence to convict Shido for more than just Goro’s attempted murder. For all that Shido appeared confident that the arrest of Joker would be more important than his own trial, he seemed entirely unaware of the whole case that had been built against him. Akira had a feeling that was what would ultimately lead to Shido’s downfall, since the case he and Sae had built against him was  _ pretty fucking solid _ . 

“... I broke his nose,” Goro admitted, quietly, and very proudly. 

Akira’s full-bellied laugh filled the room like music, and Goro snorted slightly before joining him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :D :D Okay so this time, we ARE DEFINITELY staring at the end of Polaris. I might make it a nice, round 20 chapters with an epilogue. 
> 
> Remember when I said, like, two weeks ago that this was supposed to be a one shot? 
> 
> rip
> 
> Also, I'm still open for commissions! Message me on Tumblr if you'd like to have me write something for you! I am Pastel-Didactic on Tumblr <3
> 
> Up next: The trial of Masayoshi Shido!
> 
> Until next time! <3


	18. Trial and Error

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry guys- I'm sorry this is so late. I was doing super well with the daily updates, then I got sick, and a bunch of other stuff happened and I had to process. Stuff happened today that I'm still processing. It's like the month has just gotten worse and worse? I won't give up though! I'm doing what I can. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter! I promise I'll keep up on my updates. :D 
> 
> I love you all!

Nijima Sae was considered one of the best prosecutors in Japan. 

She was one of the youngest women to ever sit for the bar in Japan, and passed with a nearly perfect score. She prided herself on her success in her trials, and until recently, all of the cases she won were accomplished through legitimate means. Proper evidence, dates, time stamps. Witnesses. Victims still left alive that could speak for the crimes committed against them, and some who’s silence spoke louder than words. Recently, however, she was receiving a lot of pressure from her superiors to cut corners and get the results they wanted. 

Sae never considered cutting corners or forging evidence. She was not like her peers. Some of her coworkers got innocent people thrown in jail every single day on nothing more than just their word. This was part of the reason why she liked Akechi Goro so much. When Goro came to her with questions about his cases, he always made sure to outline what evidence was off, or what statement seemed falsified. Goro was a good detective, and she liked to think she’d done well in training him for his duties. She considered him part of her family, and she and her sister have included him in their dinner plans more than once. 

Imagine her surprise when all of this happened, and Goro wound up in the hospital, allegedly shot by the Phantom Thief Joker. 

Did she believe it? 

Of course not. 

Guns weren’t Joker’s style. He and his cohort were vehemently against violence, and no crime they had committed even so much as ended with an assaulted civilian or officer. To say that a pacifist, white collar criminal was suddenly shooting people was hilarious, especially if that someone was Akechi Goro. Sae wasn’t blind- she had seen the reports of the various failed captures and close calls that Goro made towards identifying Joker. It almost turned into a sort of game for them- who could get the other first? Sae was experiencing pressure from her superiors to tell the precinct reassign that case, but honestly? She didn’t want to- capturing Joker seemed to consume Goro’s life, but he always allowed equal dedication to his other cases. It didn’t impede his work, and she couldn’t think of anyone else who could solve the case. 

So today she stood in court, listening to Shido’s lawyer ask the man question after question. She could easily tell that the questions had been rehearsed, practiced, and were likely not honest at all. Shido sounded ridiculous, with cotton jammed up his nose and blood down his shirt. When the judge asked what had happened to his nose, Shido simply replied that he'd fallen. Sae didn't believe that, but a quiet snort from the raven suspect behind her told her all she needed to know. After this, she was going to call Kurusu Akira to the stand. The man she was relatively certain that Shido was trying to frame as Joker. She plainly saw what Shido had to gain from framing him. His entire freedom rested on the court finding the Phantom Thief case larger than Shido’s murder charge, along with others that Sae planned to make stick. 

In sum, Sae charged him with one count of first degree murder, one count of solicitation for murder, one count of attempted murder, kidnapping, and assault with a deadly weapon,  _ several _ counts of campaign fraud, embezzlement, and misuse of public funding, along with several other charges acting as sprinkles on top of one giant, felonious cake. 

Her key to get all these charges to stick was Akechi Goro. 

Akechi was currently sitting behind her and next to Kurusu, and if she listened carefully enough she could hear his nervous tick- the tapping of his foot into the polished tile floor. She knew his history with Shido had to be rough. To hear that Shido Masayoshi was actually his father wasn’t something that necessarily surprised her. But she wished he had trusted her enough to tell her himself. That did upset her far more than she thought it would. 

Once Shido was through spitting his lies on the stand, and the defense offered no further questions, Sae stood, and called Kurusu Akira to the stand. 

If it were up to her, Shido wouldn’t be allowed a lawyer. Yes, that was illegal, and  _ yes _ , Shido had the right to one.    
  
However.

All the defense was capable of doing was asking more questions that made things more complicated. Lies that would take precious minutes to unravel. She only had a few days to convict him of these charges. The trial was to be expedited due to the media and the scandal- any longer than three or four days before deliberation and they were  _ screwed. _ The Diet would throw out the case, and Shido would be given a slap on the wrist at best. 

His campaign would be ruined, but he could start over, which was not the goal here. If they failed here, or if he bought his way out, Shido could never be charged for these particular crimes again. It was all or nothing, and giving up because Shido had a shady lawyer was  _ not _ in Sae’s blood. 

“Please state your name and occupation for the record,” she asked Akira as soon as he was sworn in and seated. 

“Kurusu Akira, and currently I’m under probation at Cafe Leblanc.” So he was set on being prompt and accurate with his responses. Good. 

“Are you aware of why you’ve been asked to testify?”    
  
“I’m aware that Shido has made allegations that I’m the Phantom Thief Joker.” He swung one leg up to cross against the other and leaned back in his chair, and quirked an eyebrow at Sae. At least he knew why he was here. 

“As part of your probation, do you regularly check in with your probation officer?”    
  
“Yes, I do.” There was something about the look on his face… Where had she seen that expression before..? 

“Your honor, this is Kurusu-kun’s probationary journal. I submit it to the court for evidence. You’ll notice that there are dates here on which the Phantom Thief Joker committed a theft, and yet Kurusu-kun was checking in with his probation officer.” Sae handed the journal to the judge, who gave it a cursive read. 

While the judge flipped through the pages of the journal, reading dates and check-in signatures, Sae looked over at Akira. Who simply… smirked at her. 

Sae had only seen one photo of the Phantom Thief Joker. Only one, and it was Goro’s. In the photo, she had seen a partially blurry figure as he jumped over the railing of a building. But that face. That smirk, right there. 

Oh shit. Oh,  _ fuck _ . 

Kurusu Akira  _ was _ the Phantom Thief Joker. 

It was at this point that Sae began to panic. If she revealed that Akira was Joker, then Shido would get what he wanted. The focus of the trial would shift, and Shido would quietly slip away to fucking Bermuda, untouched and unable to be tried again for his crimes. This case, one that she and Joker- and by extension, Akira -had built together would be thrown out and never visited again. But… Akira was right there. Joker was  _ right there _ . If they cleared his name of being Joker right here, right now, she would have the absolute worst time trying him for it. Since he could be judged to not have sufficient evidence to say that he  _ is _ Joker, proving that he is would be an absolute nightmare. The authorities officially knew nothing except what he looks like in his outfit. No official crime scene photos, no fingerprints, no DNA. 

It would be so easy to prove that Joker existed, and was the man in front of her, but also that he wasn’t. 

Sae turned to look at Goro, who was gripping the back of the chair in front of him so hard his knuckles were white. The look he sent her could only be described as desperate and pleading. Akechi was  _ praying to her _ , she realized, not to bust Akira on the stand. 

Oh, that’s right- 

Makoto had told her that Joker was in love with Goro. 

Which would mean that not only was Goro aware that Akira was Joker, he was likely complicit as well. Sighing heavily, Sae turned to look back at Akira, who silently awaited her next move. The judge put down the notebook, “I accept it into evidence. Please, continue, Nijima-san.” 

“Very well, your honor.”   
  
It was her moment of truth. Her moment where she could have proven that Joker was seated before the court- her moment to capture the Most Wanted Thief in Japan. 

She was about to throw it away. 

“Given that you are under probation, your whereabouts are constantly noted, written down, and accounted for by your boss and your probation officer. Is this correct, Kurusu-kun?”    
  
“Yes.”    
  
“If you were gone for several hours during the night, how fast do you think your disappearance would be noted?” 

“Very fast. My boss installed a motion sensor on the door to Leblanc. You’ve seen it.” 

“We have. I have a picture of that for you, your honor. Do you have any knowledge of the identities or whereabouts of the Phantom Thieves?” 

“No, I do not.” 

“Have you ever associated with someone who identified as a Phantom Thief?”    
  
“No, I have not.”    
  
“Are you the Phantom Thief Joker?”    
  
“I am not.” 

Sae sat back down at her table, feeling both lighter and heavier at the same time. “No further questions, your honor.” 

Goro’s head came to rest on the back of her chair, the crown of his head nudging against her spine. Relief flooded his features and was the only sound on his breath when he whispered, “Thank you, Sae-san.” 

“It isn’t over yet, Akechi-kun. It’s far from over.” Shido’s defense lawyer had his turn to counter, and the balding middle-aged man only made himself look stupid in front of the court. Akira was  _ good _ , Sae had thought as he turned one statement after another against Shido and his lawyer. She had hope for this case, she really did. 

Not giving up Joker to the court had been a difficult decision, and yet one of the easiest she ever had to make. This trial wasn’t about the Phantom Thieves. If it came to it, she could try Joker later. This was about Shido, and forcing him to face the retribution he deserved. For Goro’s sake, for the sake of his mother, and all the people Shido had ever wronged. Shido was the much, much bigger fish in this case. Turning this case around to focus on Akira wasn’t justice. She won’t stoop to the level of her peers for a paycheck, or for a scandal. 

Akira came down from the stand and returned to his seat, gripping Goro’s knee reassuringly. It wasn’t over yet, but they could see the end of their involvement from here. 

Sae stood up, and called Goro to the stand. 

Everything hinged on this- Akechi Goro’s testimony. Akira held his breath, desperately waiting to see what would happen. 

Where would Sae start her questioning? Would Goro be okay up there, with Shido’s eyes on him, as he told the courts  _ everything _ ? 

Akira watched as the man he loved took a deep breath, squared his shoulders, and looked at Sae with a look of pure determination on his face. 

Here goes nothing. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're almost done here! I still can't believe it. Polaris has been a massive project for me- it's currently 95 pages long! Can you guys believe that? 
> 
> My Tumblr is still open to commissions, and I'd love to collab with you guys on something if you just wanna write together! 
> 
> I also recently saw/became obsessed with Promare, so expect some fics from me in that fandom as well! :D 
> 
> Next up: Goro's testimony and the verdict, plus some fluff in between! 
> 
> Until next time! <3


	19. Aiding and Abetting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS IS IT EVERYONE!
> 
> I couldn't fit the verdict in this chapter because, logically speaking, the whole ordeal just got so messy. So so messy, with Goro's testimony. 
> 
> SO I have decided to include that in the next chapter. 
> 
> I hope you guys like this chapter. Please let me know what you think!

Goro’s information forced the judge to put a delay on the trial. 

From the moment Goro opened his mouth, Akira knew he was going to tell them  _ everything _ . It was evident in the set of his shoulders, the confident glimmer in his eyes. So he did, along with Sae’s guidance. He admitted to knowing about Shido’s plan, he admitted to being groomed for this plan, and he admitted to absolutely hating the fucker for it. He went through all of the evidence with Sae, and it lasted for so long there was a recess before the defense could even say anything to him at all. For all that Akira attempted to avoid the court system at all due to his involvement with the Phantom Thieves, he was surprised they were able to move this quickly. Typically high-profile cases like this were drawn out, the media and the public lapping up any and all scandal they could get their hands on with a fervor that bordered disgusting. Though, Akira supposed, if  _ he _ were arrested they’d do this same thing. Shido’s crimes severely damaged the reputation of Japananese politicians. The swift order of his trial, the initial limitation of three days- all of it was in an effort to just have this trial done and over with as soon as possible. Goro’s testimony put a  _ huge _ damper on that. Sae had promised she would stick every single charge she could on him, and since she issued all these charges for this trial, she only had one shot to properly deliver on her promise.

Throughout his testimony, the defense tried to object countless times, but to no avail.

Goro’s testimony implicated four CEOs, Kaneshiro Junya, several high-ranking executives, old families, a famous artist, and the SIU director. There were likely several other smaller facets to Shido’s plan, but all of that would come later. They covered all the evidence Sae and Joker had gathered, from the bank accounts to the election fraud, all the way to Akechi Miyu. That was difficult for Akira to watch. Goro looked to be three seconds from either detonating or bursting into tears on the stand, and no one could tell which was which. Sae gracefully made quick work of that line of questioning and moved on to the pertinent case at hand. They went over his involvement in the kidnapping and what happened in the alleyway that led to Shido’s arrest. What sadness Goro had on his face for the memory of his mother had quickly turned into anger and his responses were venemously targeted at Shido’s seat. 

If looks could kill, Shido would have died dozens of times over during that testimony. 

“Are you able to identify the person or persons responsible for shooting you last Friday, October 13th?”    
  
“Yes.”    
  
“Are they present in the courtroom?”    
  
“Yes.”    
  
“Can you identify them for me, please?”    
  
“It was the defendant, Shido Masayoshi.” 

With that, the first charge on Shido was perfectly solidified. That was one charge down, anyway. About a dozen more to go.

In admitting to his role in Shido’s plan, Akira wondered if the judge would pursue anything against Goro, given that he was technically part of the election scandal. That seemed to be something that would be talked about later, as court was dismissed. The judge agreed that they would have to reconvene when all the new evidence against Shido in two days. They were sent home- Goro with instructions not to leave town, and Akira with the court’s apology. 

Both of them were exhausted, and Goro was quiet most of the way to his apartment. Akira tried to get the brunet to cheer up, and found he could only be so successful. 

“It’s going to be okay, Goro. Sae-san will not let you go to jail.”    
  
“I’m not worried about that. The only thing they could ever hazard to stick to me is aiding and abetting. She’s probably going to offer me immunity as early as tomorrow morning,” He said softly, but the gentle grip at his sleeve said he was indeed worried about that possibility. Though Goro was right- he never actually  _ committed _ any crimes. All that he was, was aware that they were happening. In the grand scheme of things, he had enough evidence to warrant immunity. But he definitely understood that fear. Akira was in the same boat not even 12 hours prior. 

“... I won’t let you get arrested, either. I’m pretty good at breakouts.” At that, Goro snorted, and leaned to rest his head on Akira’s shoulder. That was progress, and it made Akira happy that Goro entertained his silly jokes. “I know it’s irrational, but what if everything we’ve given them isn’t enough? What if, despite all of this, he gets out or gets a lenient sentence?” 

“I’d say that’s a valid fear. I know it’s not comforting, but the fact is that Shido has a lot of people in his pocket,” Goro balled his fist in Akira’s sleeve, and he moved his arm to gently rest over Goro’s closest knee, “However, what you did today? The media will be talking about for  _ weeks _ . This will take  _ forever _ for the courts to fully unravel. They will uncover everything he’s ever done. The SIU director is going to be recused by morning, probably right as you get your immunity offer. There will be no one to hide anything.” Despite the weird looks they’d likely get on the train, Akira lifted his head to place a kiss on Goro’s head, “Sae is going to tear the entire system apart to see Shido in jail for this.” 

That seemed to lighten Goro’s mood, and he offered Akira a soft smile in reward. The train pulled into a station, and Goro looked up to see the stop. “Akira…” They’d reached the Aoyama-Itchome stop. This is where their paths converged, and Akira would have to get off here if he wanted to go home. 

“Yeah?” Akira wasn’t moving for the door. He barely even shifted as the train stopped and the doors opened.

“... Will you stay at my apartment tonight?” 

Akira chuckled, “I was going to see you home, anyway. I’d love to spend the night, though, if you don’t mind. We’ve both been through a lot.” It was true- they’d never actually had time to relax since Goro fell asleep on him a little over a week ago. A week felt like a blip of time in the face of everything else that’s happened. Goro felt like this week has lasted an entire year. All he wanted to do was relax and sleep. Peacefully, if he could, and he’d much rather accomplish that  _ with _ Akira than apart from him. 

Akira seemed to get fidgety as they approached Goro’s apartment. It was a subtle change- a quickening of his pace walking down the street, taking the lead when they had been walking side by side. “Akira..? Is there something wrong?” Oh,  _ please _ , Goro prayed,  _ don’t _ let there be anything wrong. He was so tired. 

“No, I’m just excited! Come on.” Excited..? Goro followed him like a duckling, curious as to why Akira was now practically vibrating with anticipation. Goro fished his keys out of his pocket, thankful that someone had remembered to bring them to the hospital. He put the keys into the door, turned them, and opened the door. Akira seemed to be holding his breath. 

His apartment was  _ immaculate _ . Goro kept a tidy house, but this? This was freshly done. Floors were mopped and… was that polish on the hardwood? He’d been meaning to get to that, but didn't have the chance. His air plants were in new pots? A brand new flowering azalea was on his previously bare side table. In the center of the living room, posted in front of the rug that marked the living room space was his cello. 

Or wait. No. That was  _ not _ his cello. 

“Akira..? What is this?” His cello had some natural wear on the base. This wasn’t his cello.

“The guys Shido sent ended up trashing your apartment.” That was a new cello. 

“They trashed… the  _ entire apartment _ ?” That was a  _ brand new _ cello. 

“Yeah. So while you were in the hospital, I came over and fixed it up for you.” Goro looked back at Akira, who was beaming pridefully and twisting his bangs between his fingers. 

“You did this… for me?” All brain functions ceased, and all the panic at seeing the frighteningly expensive cello in his living room disappeared. “Of course I did,” Akira shrugged, “Do you honestly think I was going to let you come home to a completely trashed apartment after having been shot?” 

“I’m not sure what I thought I’d come home to. I didn’t know they’d vandalized my house.” All this happened after he was taken. He didn’t know any of this happened. That Akira would be so thoughtful to come over and clean it for him, and furthermore to leave him  _ gifts _ , was nothing Goro expected. He was suddenly struck with the realization that he’s never had  _ anyone _ care for him quite as much as Akira does. Everything he’d ever gotten, he’d either purchased himself, or was some kind of underhanded “gift” from Shido. He’d never had anyone just… give a damn, apart from himself. A warm smile came across his face and he pulled Akira in for a grateful kiss. 

“You’re insufferable,” Goro smiled against his lips, just long enough to say that, before kissing him again. 

“I love you too,” Akira replied, who seemed to finally understand why Goro called him that so frequently. 

Goro parted from Akira, eyeing the white fortune sitting in the living room, “One question.” Akira followed Goro’s line of sight to the cello, and seemed hesitant to reply. When he did, though, he braced his hands on Goro’s hips so the taller man couldn’t escape. “They broke your old one.” 

Goro had the grace to look absolutely  _ horrified _ , “They  _ broke _ my  _ cello _ !? That cello was-”

“871,453 yen, after shipping.”

“I’m going to absolutely  _ crucify  _ that son of a  _ motherfucking _ -” Akira placed a kiss on Goro’s forehead, staving off his anger from reaching its melting point, “It’s okay, Goro.” 

  
“ _ How _ is it okay!? You bought me a new cello, that’s so expensive, Akira! I saved for four years to get that cello-”    
  
“Goro, I didn’t pay for it.” Goro’s eyebrows shot up so far they nearly blended into his bangs. “I’m sorry, are you telling me you  _ stole _ this cello?”    
  
“No, you goofball,” Akira laughed, “Oracle has quite a lot of experience with hacking. I had her hack Shido’s finances. It was written off as a “charitable donation,” and it disappeared into the void of his expenditures.” Goro blinked at him, as if what Akira had just said were registering. Eventually, Goro cracked a  _ wicked _ grin. That grin was  _ new _ on his face, and it made Akira’s knees weak. 

“Akira, you’re an absolute devil.” 

“I’m aware. I figured it was the  _ least _ he could do, considering he shot you.” Goro’s grin became more wicked, and Akira could see cogs turning in that brain of his. Akira hummed as he watched this happen, and placed a soft kiss on Goro’s cheek, “Penny for your thoughts?” 

“Not yet. It’s still just an idea. I’m going to leave the cello here for now. I can’t carry it yet- doctor’s orders.” A quick, chaste kiss to Akira’s lips had them separating in favor of food. Goro didn’t have much in the way of food- he was not the best cook. He could bake like a fiend, but cooking just seemed like a whole other art and he had very little experience with it. Luckily, Akira had anticipated this given the state of his kitchen and had brought over leftover curry from when he cleaned the apartment. 

Warming that up took no time at all, and they sat on the sofa watching boring TV while they ate. Goro had a very small appetite given what his stomach had already went through, and was finished long before Akira was. When the other man had finished his curry he stood up, and Goro made to follow, but was quickly sat back down onto the sofa. “Nope. Don’t move. I’ll be right back.” 

Akira disappeared into the kitchen and rummaged through a familiar cabinet. “That can wait until morning, can’t it,” came the sleepy retort from Goro as Akira returned with his first aid kit. Akira shook his head, “Not unless you want an infection.” He hated that Akira was right. Why was he so right. Goro lifted up his shirt and helped Akira remove the bandage from his stitches. The cotton caught on one of the thick, black stitches and Goro hissed. The injury looked good. It was healing well, and Goro had no problems walking. Just some pain when he moved in a way that bent him or if he stretched too much. Even that wasn’t as painful as it had originally been. The two of them worked together to clean the injury and bind it back up with gauze. “This is all terribly familiar,” Goro chuckled, looking at their circumstances. Akira was nestled between his legs, kneeling on the rug in front of him, carefully wrapping his injury. “You did the same for me,” Akira hummed, “it’s only fair that I return the favor.” 

“Thank you, Akira,” Goro whispered, “I really appreciate all you’ve done for me.” The raven smiled up at him and sat back on the coffee table to close up the kit. “This is all… a little overwhelming, honestly. I’m not used to this. You’re going to spoil me.” 

Akira helped him up, “Perhaps I just wanted to show you that I care. Outside of the human decency of helping you when you need it.” 

Akira was a very unique person. A very kind person. Goro resolved to show him that he cared just as much, and they had plenty of time to get to that. 

For now, though, they had to sleep. There was no knowing what would happen tomorrow. They could be called in to the courtroom at any time, even if the odds were good that the judge would need longer than 48 hours to go over the evidence. Goro lent Akira some sweatpants and a shirt, and they took turns in the bathroom changing and getting ready for bed. The two of them fell into bed like they’d done this a thousand times. Goro was already in bed when Akira came into the bedroom, and he wordlessly lifted the sheets for Akira to slide under and make himself comfortable. He ended up on his back, and Goro curled into him.

Seeing what Goro was trying to do, Akira lifted his right arm for Goro to snuggle under, eventually coming to rest with his head on Akira’s chest. He lowered his arm to drape over Goro’s shoulder and the room fell silent as they stopped shifting. 

All the aches of the day came crashing down on them as soon as their bodies began to relax. 

“Does your side hurt from laying like this,” Akira asked, all hushed and soft. The ache creeped back into his shoulders and his back. His jaw began to ache again- he’d forgotten he’d even been punched just a couple days ago. Goro shook his head, “It feels weird, but doesn’t hurt. I’ll move if it does.” Akira murmured his acknowledgement and tightened his hold on the brunet. “This is nice.”

“Mmhm. Should have done this ages ago.” 

“Mmhm. We were stupid.” 

“We were doing our jobs, Goro.” 

“Stupid,” Goro was half asleep, and groaned when Akira’s chuckles jostled him. “Go the fuck to sleep,” he grumbled, nuzzling his head closer into Akira’s chest. It was a few minutes of silence before Goro was asleep, the arm thrown over Akira’s stomach clenching at his shirt unconsciously. Akira smiled warmly, and followed him into the depths of sleep. 

When Akira woke in the morning, Goro wasn’t there. 

His side of the bed was still warm, but only slightly. Rolling onto his side, Akira fumbled for his phone to check the time- 7:13 am. The smell of coffee wafted in from the hallway. So Goro was awake, and likely in the kitchen. Akira closed his eyes again, for what he swore was a blink, but when he opened them again he found that half an hour had passed, and he should probably get up to at least see what Goro wanted to do for breakfast. He rolled out of bed with whatever grace he could muster for so early in the morning (which was not much), and followed the smell of coffee and… was that cheese? Into the kitchen. Goro was standing there, in a rumpled white shirt and black shorts, staring at the coffee machine. 

“Hey,” Akira announced himself, and Goro turned to look at him. Goro had some intense bedhead, brown hair sticking up at every angle and fluffed up on his head. He was gorgeous, and when Akira told him as much the detective blushed and only further proved his point. “I’m making breakfast,” Goro murmured, motioning towards the oven. A breakfast quiche was in the oven, and Akira was not surprised. He had seen the frightening amount of pie crusts, fillings, fruits, and other sweets he had in his pantry. “That smells really good,” Akira commented, taking a seat at the counter. Goro poured him a mug of coffee and handed it to him, “I don’t have a syphon pot like Sakura-san does, but I hope you’ll find the beans are sufficient. I did buy them at Leblanc.” 

“Are you usually awake so early?”    
  
“It’s part of my job,” Goro replied, opening the oven to check on their breakfast. Akira had no idea that Goro was up so early for work. Suddenly, he felt incredibly  _ bad _ . He remembered how his heists usually happen late at night, bordering on midnight. Some aren’t even over until 2am. “I’m sorry,” Akira said softly, sipping at his coffee. It was pretty good, despite the quality of the coffee maker not being the greatest. “Don’t worry about it. I don’t always go in at eight thirty. I get my sleep, Akira.” 

They fell silent for a moment, but Akira’s unspoken question colored the air. 

“Sae-san called me. She offered me immunity, and apologized it couldn’t have been done before the trial started.” 

Akira hummed over his mug, “Do you have to work today? Or are you excused because of the trial.”    
  


“I do have to go in, but no fieldwork. Just deskwork until my stitches come out or the trial’s over, whichever comes first.” 

“Your stitches will come out faster, probably,” Akira replied with a snort. Goro fished the quiche out of the oven with mitts and set it to cool on the counter. “I have to get ready. Help yourself,” he said, placing a kiss on the side of Akira’s head. Within fifteen minutes, Goro came out, dressed in his white button up, striped tie, and black slacks, his gloves in his hands. Akira had cut him a slice of the quiche- because the other man was not leaving until he’d eaten something. This seemed to be of no contest, because Goro sat down next to him and started eating. “How is it?”    
  
“Really good. Thank you,” Akira was in the middle of cutting what had to be his third slice from the pan. Goro laughed, and had two slices himself before he had to go. “I’ll let you know if I hear anything at the station.” He’d said before he left, stealing one final kiss before heading out the door.

Akira only watched him over the brim of his borrowed mug, smiling deviously behind the edge.

Goro didn’t get home until past 10pm that night. His coworkers had many questions for him, and there was only so much he could say. He’d met with Sae and signed the immunity agreement, and they went over their game plan. So far it was going well. The investigative team assigned to the evidence they’d submitted were pulling out every stop possible. Shido was kept under 24/7 surveillance by a neutral team of officers from a different district. All seemed to be going according to their endgame goal of putting Shido away for life. The end of the tunnel was visible from where Goro was standing, and it was nothing but brightness on the other side. 

The apartment was empty when he got home, a calling card and a delicate stem of balsam flowers next to it. 

_ Goro, _

_ At work. Will be back soon. Probably not until midnight, though. This one is a big one, and I’ll have to call in help. _

_ Most ardently yours, _

_ Joker _

Goro rolled his eyes fondly and sat the card aside. He put the flower in water, hoping that Akira was going to revive his habit of leaving flowers with his cards meant for Goro. Untying his tie from his neck, Goro made his way down the hall and into his room. He wanted to change, get out of his work clothes into something more comfortable. 

When he flicked on his bedroom light, it took him a while to notice it. 

He checked on his marimo, which still seemed to be fine even after having its habitat destroyed. Akira got him a somehow  _ bigger _ container and a net that was held up by a metal hook to hold the glass sphere. Goro was worried when he’d heard about the terrarium being shattered, since marimo aren’t necessarily meant to stay out of water for long. 

When he turned around, however, Goro noticed a parcel on his desk. 

It was a thin box, almost like one used to store clothing, a cubic box, and an envelope. The boxes were wrapped in red and black wrapping paper, and that was eventually what persuaded him to approach the boxes. Sure enough, the envelope was signed with a black “J” in the corner. Goro rolled his eyes  _ again _ and turned the envelope over in his hands. There was something small and loose inside, and something bigger. 

The envelope had an obnoxious green print over a white label in the middle that said, “Open me first!” followed by a black… emoji? Goro wasn’t sure what that was, but it was a grinning cat face with razor teeth and a tail. 

Goro opened the envelope with his thumb, and a familiar looking dot fell out, along with an earpiece. It was a simple thing, sleek and black, with a black and purple striped piece that arced out to fit over the shell of his ear. Turning over the earpiece in his hands, Goro figured out it was for his left ear and fit the piece in properly. A piece of paper slid out, instructing him how to download an app titled, “Polaris.” Goro had seen that name pop up once, and only once, when he tried to connect his listening device to the tracking dot he'd stolen from Akira. It was some kind of software that housed the Phantom Thieve's tracker data, that was all he knew. This all seemed so convoluted, but Goro did trust Akira. If Akira was the one who left these for him, he was going to trust him and go through with the instructions. He downloaded the app and paired his phone to the earpiece. Tapping the side, Goro activated the device. A young, cheerful, feminine voice filtered through. 

“Helllooooooo, Crow!” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ehehehehe! The next chapter will be the END of Polaris. I'm so happy I wrote this. I met some awesome people writing this, and replying to all of your comments brings me extreme amounts of joy. 
> 
> Thank you all for going on this journey with me. It means more than I can say that I got such a warm welcome into the community after ten years of not posting anything. 
> 
> I love you all!
> 
> Next up: The Epilogue of Polaris!
> 
> Until next time! <3


	20. Polaris

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HERE IT IS! The end! 
> 
> I'm so sorry it took so long. I've had a very, very rough month. It got so bad that I'd sit down to write this and anything I wrote just sounded sad and not my writing style at all. But I powered through it, after a fashion, and here we are! The end of Polaris. 
> 
> This chapter as a small warning for implied sexual content, so please be aware of that! 
> 
> Thank you guys SO SO much for bearing with me through this, and for being SO patient with me while I work through my problems. I couldn't ask for a better group of readers, really. 
> 
> A massive, shamelessly HUGE shout out to Prompt_Master for finally kicking my ass in gear yesterday and helped me find the strength I needed to write this. Because of your efforts, I wrote all of this is one night- but editing it took much longer, and I wasn't sure how to end it. I LITERALLY wouldn't have been able to do this without you. THANK YOU. 
> 
> I tried to sprinkle in a little of what everyone asked for last time, so I hope you all enjoy it!

Three Months Later

The months passed from October into December and thence into the new year with very little incident. Snow had fallen recently along the streets of Shibuya, rendering the sounds of the city almost muted in the stillness of winter. The snowfall muffled the sounds of cars on the roads. Citizens walked around bundled with hoods and scarves, stuffing gloved hands in their pockets to ward off the cold. Some holiday lights were still strewn up from December, the tiny bulbs frozen over with ice with absolutely zero chance of removing them until they thawed. That silent winter night was Joker’s view from inside the office of a prominent businessman that was suspected of embezzling donated funding. 

“Joker, there’s activity on the second floor. I think the security guard has finally woken up from his nap,” Oracle warned over his earpiece. Sighing, Joker tapped the side of his earpiece to change the channel and turned from the window and to the desk. He wasted time opening desk drawers while the borrowed USB containing her cracking software got to work on the business’s firewalls. 43% Complete. He still had a ways to go. Sitting down in the chair behind the desk, Joker picked up some files and lazily flipped through them. 

“He sure is flippant with his spending money. Look at this- vacations to Belize, fancy restaurants. Cruises. Hard to believe all of this comes from a company that posted in the red last month.” The voice crackled to life on Joker’s headset and he chuckles in reply. 

“I’m not sure what we expected,” Joker’s sarcasm was heavy, but all in good fun. The file in his hands was useless for their purposes, so he places it back into the drawer and glances up at the computer. 52%. Couldn’t this thing go any faster..? 

“Don’t sass me,” was the eloquent response. 

Joker only laughed, grabbing another folder. “That security guard get any closer?” There’s some rustling on the other end, and frantic typing. An easy smirk slides across Joker’s face as everything falls silent, followed by a thud Joker heard from the floor above him. Huh. The guard must have walked right by this office, and Joker didn’t even notice! Joker only chuckled, and tapped the side of his earpiece again, “Oracle, the location of that security guard?” 

Oracle is laughing on the other end, which basically answers his question. 

Joker tapped back over to catch the end of a very colorful insult directed at him. “-_ own dumbass partner _ ** _neglected_ ** to warn me about the fucking _ security guard _. So help me, Joker-” 

“You knocked him out, didn’t you, honey?” 

“... Only a little,” Crow’s grumble made Joker smile, and he spun around in the CEO’s Corinthian leather chair. Crow’s skills have only improved over time, and even as paltry as three months after his recruitment, a single security guard was nowhere near a threat. Joker had once single-handedly watched Crow break into a factory with _ several _ guards on the night crew and come out in ten minutes with the files they needed without tripping a single alarm. That was when Joker decided he should start coming with him on heists. “How’s the hacking coming on the CFO’s computer?” 

“92%. I’ve been looking at their ledgers in the meantime. I’m amazed they keep a paper copy, but then I suppose that’s for auditing purposes.” Joker looks over at his computer’s status and it reads back with a dismal 61%. Was it just going to increase by tens for the next hour…? “I’m almost jealous. Mine is moving glacially slow.” 

“Is it…? Is it having problems with the firewall? Mine just finished.” Joker can hear the sound of Crow unplugging his USB, “I’m on my way to you.” 

“Don’t trip over the security guard.”   
  
“Fuck you.” 

Joker was so in love with him. He smiles and swivels around in his borrowed chair again, patiently waiting. Oracle had swept the building for silent alarms and they were lucky in that what ones the building possessed had already been deactivated by her hacking skills. Beyond the atrium, there were no countermeasures of any kind. Granted, Crow had mentioned that was suspicious, and highly unlikely for a target that warranted their scrutiny. Joker was compelled to agree with him, but so far they’ve had absolutely no problems. He _ might have _ let his guard slip. 

Crow came into the room just a few minutes later with a briefcase he hadn’t brought with him and leaned over the back of Joker’s chair, stopping him from spinning as he wished. Red eyes peered through a black mask at the numbers displayed on the screen. 

69%. 

“Seriously?” 

Oracle’s voice crackled through the earpiece, “Joker, Crow, I’m detecting police movement outside your building! The firewall must have been tripped- grab the USBs and get out of there!” 

Crow straightened himself and looked out the window and down several floors to the street level. Sure enough, the SIU’s special operations were parked just outside, men armed to the teeth bearing down on the doors. 

“_Shit_,” Crow hissed. A helicopter was bearing towards their location as well, no doubt preparing to drop off men onto the roof. “Oracle, I thought your software was bulletproof!” 

“It is- but the firewall detected the hacking attempt before my software could stop it! Get _ moving _!” 

The both of them took off down the hall and were about two floors from the roof before they heard the sound of boots around the corner. That was faster than usual-- almost as if they didn’t waste time on the rooms along the way. They were headed straight for the CEO’s office. Sae’s work, no doubt. Ever since the case was given back to her, she hasn’t gone easy on them, as she’d promised. It was expected- Nijima Sae never backed down on a promise- but one would think she’d cut them a little slack, all things considered. 

Grabbing Joker by the collar of his coat, Crow tossed the both of them into a meeting room with frosted glass windows. That room was the closest, but that wasn’t the best idea with the both of them wearing dark clothing. Joker, in turn, grabbed Crow by the arm and dropped them both onto the floor behind the office chairs. Goro landed on his back with a thud and Joker was hunched over him. 

“We really need to stop meeting like this, detective~” 

“I swear to _ god _ , Joker, we are _ working _-” 

He was probably going to be murdered when they got home, but it’s fine. 

“Shh, honey.” Joker hushed him as the police finally reached their hallway. Sae’s laser-pointed search parameters meant they didn’t even look into their hiding place before moving onto the stairs leading down onto the bottom floor. As soon as they heard the boots descending the stairs, Joker was helping Crow up and they were off down the opposite way, heading up onto the roof with no further obstacles. 

The buildings surrounding the office they were in were about as high up as the one they were in, which was helpful. 

Until they realized that Sae had stationed men on _ these buildings as well _. 

Turning around as spotlights settled on them, Crow found one rooftop currently empty of police and tugged Akira in that direction. This was the closest rooftop to them, accessible in a single jump. The police assigned to that rooftop had _ just _ made it to the roof as they moved onto the next, then down a fire escape into the narrow alleyways, avoiding the spotlights and searches. 

“Sae-san will have set up a perimeter by now,” Crow huffed, turning down an alley that led out onto the road. They had to keep off the street, and potentially find a safe house. “Oracle, where is the nearest safe house?” 

“Two blocks from there! You’re almost there, but the street is about to be blocked off. You’d better hurry!” 

Joker grabbed Crow by the clawed gauntlet and dashed towards the safe room. They made it there with barely any time left- as soon as they turned down the alley they needed, towards the run-down restaurant front, sirens and flashing lights had turned onto their street. Joker unlocked the door and held up the grate just long enough that when they closed it and locked the door behind them, a patrol car drove by the entrance of their little alley. 

“We made it, Oracle. Going dark until the morning.”

“Roger, Joker! Sleep tight, guys!” The both of them took out their earpieces and sighed heavily. Taking off his mask, Goro sat his stolen briefcase on the table. “I’m going to take a shower, if you don’t mind.” Akira nodded, balancing his mask on his head, and set about looking through their rations to see what he could make for dinner. Finding what he needed to make mild curry, Akira sat the ingredients on the counter next to the only remaining stove in the kitchen to do just that. 

This safehouse was one of several Haru had renovated, and they were lucky for that. It had a working bathroom, a dining room and kitchen, and two bedrooms with two beds each, along with six spare futons, just in case. Their group of active Thieves seemed to be growing by the day, with another addition having been made earlier in the month, bringing their number to nine. He heard Goro turn on the water in the bathroom for his shower and Akira looked down at the food he was considering making. This could all wait until after a shower… right? 

Goro had left the bathroom door open in invitation. 

Undressing and setting aside a pair of clean pants, a shirt, and a towel, Akira joined Goro in the shower. “Hey,” Goro sighed, rolling his tense shoulders under the hot spray. “Hi,” Akira replied, placing his hands on Goro’s shoulders and digging his thumbs into the tense muscles. Goro sighed with relief and dropped his head back, “We’re going to have to go over the books in the morning.”   
  
“Mmhm.”   
  
“I took the hard copies with me-- they’ll start freezing accounts before noon.”   
  
“Yep.”   
  
“They’ll bring in lawyers, try to scrub their computers.”   
  
“Uh-huh.” 

“Akira,” Goro turned to face his partner, a small scowl on his face. “Doesn’t this bother you..?” 

“No, it doesn’t. You were thorough enough, and with the data stored on those USBs, we’ll be fine.” Soapy hands traveled over Goro’s arms and shoulders, easing the stress of the heist and washing the day off of him. “You did a good job, Goro. Don’t stress so much.” Goro nods, reluctant. “Alright, but… I still think we could have done more.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. You’re still new to this- and you did great!” 

“If you say so.” 

“You even knocked out a guard- I’m so proud.”   
  
“Oh, shut the fuc- _ mmph _!” 

An indeterminate amount of time later found them curled up in bed, buried under blankets. Goro was tucked into Akira’s side, fast asleep, and Akira was laying awake, watching the ceiling. He dragged his fingers over the swell of Goro’s bare shoulder and thought about how far they had come. They had both traveled a long, difficult path to get to this point. Two years of dancing around each other followed by a single shot from an enforcer’s gun that changed everything about their relationship. Followed by a couple more over the course of a couple weeks, but besides that. 

Two months of extra investigating and one dragged out trial was what it finally took to put Shido Masayoshi behind bars. In total, 26 people were arrested and charged with everything from white collar crimes like embezzlement to far more unsavory crimes like solicitation for murder. Within that time, Sae was aided by Goro’s testimony, evidence, and new gatherings provided by the Phantom Thieves and quietly slipped into the Prosecution’s evidence. The most damning piece of testimony was the original autopsy report for Akechi Miyu. That document, paired with his confession from the thankfully censored Polaris audio files, and Shido’s fate was all but sealed. 

Eventually, the judge convicted Shido and sentenced him to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. It was all over, and Shido would never again see the light of day. 

The day the judge had declared him guilty, Goro and Akira were seated next to each other in the seats behind Sae in the courtroom. Goro gripped Akira’s hand so hard that his fingers turned white, but Akira didn’t even flinch. He was gripping back just as hard. The gavel came down, sealing Shido’s fate in stone, and Goro’s ears began to ring as it echoed through the hall. At first, Goro wasn’t sure he had heard the judge correctly. Two life sentences? Back to back? One for his mother… and the other for him? Goro looked over to Akira with a look on his face like he wasn’t sure if this was real. When Akira simply nodded with a smile, and Goro _ sagged _. He dropped his entire body weight against Akira’s side and let out a shuddering breath of relief. It was like the nightmare had finally ended, and they could begin the process of healing. 

Within a few days of Shido’s sentencing, Goro had, as he had expected, been contacted by a group of lawyers about Shido’s estate. While he was imprisoned, it was the judge’s ruling that Shido’s assets be transferred to Goro. Even after giving back all the stolen funds to the government and institutions from which they were taken, Goro was left with quite a sum to himself. Instead of putting it in his savings or creating a trust, Goro donated every single dime of it to orphanages all around Japan. Each institution got an equal cut of the money, under the understanding that the funds would go to repairs, schooling, supplies, clothing- anything that would benefit the health, safety, and education of the children. 

They had both come so far. Even when the rest of Japan had expected the Phantom Thieves to all be arrested by now, never having accomplished anything. Akira looked down at Goro, curled up against his chest even though he was the taller one between them, he couldn’t help but place a kiss on the crown of his head. Smiling softly, Akira pulled Goro closer to him and drifted off to sleep.

In the morning Akira found Goro sitting at the table, pouring over the documents with a mug of coffee and a plate of curry at what could only be described as the ass crack of dawn. He had a blanket wrapped around his newly clothed shoulders, and he was staring at the ledgers with a frightening amount of intent. His eyes skimmed over the indented accounts ledger, focusing on the descriptions of each entry. He could see where every dollar had been spent, and where most of it had been written off as, “gift of monetary value,” which somehow had not wound up in a separate asset account, and managing instead to be blended in with the rest of the cash account. Wonderful. 

“Morning, babe,” Akira says as he spoons out some warmed up curry and rice onto a plate for himself. “Hmm?” Came the tired, worn reply from the mop of brown bedhead at the table. “Mornin’, ‘Kira…” All of his focus had been lost in the books, it seemed, and he just hadn’t had enough coffee yet for full coherency. Akira dropped a kiss on the top of his head and moved around the table to sit across from him. “How do you feel?” 

That was a loaded question. 

Akira received in reply a roguish smirk and the most coherent sentence he’s received yet this morning, “I am… _ sore _ . I feel as though my kidneys were assaulted by a battering ram. I wonder who’s fault that is..?” Akira chuckled, stifling himself from full blown laughter by taking a sip of his coffee. “I wouldn’t _ possibly _ know.”   
  
“ _ Mm-hm _.” 

“How are the books?” The changing of the subject probably saves him, as Goro sighs heavily and replies, “Thoroughly cooked. Instead of going into a separate account, all the donated funds are absorbed back into the cash account and spent as if it were assets they legitimately had. I’m not even an accountant and I know that’s embezzling. It’s really messy work- I’m not sure how they made it this long without being caught by auditors.” 

“Bribed, probably.” Goro nods in agreement, eating a spoonful of curry. “We could probably use all of this… which, I realize is what you said last night…” 

“Mm-hm,” Akira said with a smile, reaching for Goro’s hand over the table, “You did really well. I’m proud of you.” Goro smiled- an honest thing. One that just a few months ago, Akira would swear he’d never be able to wring out of the aloof detective that tracked him halfway across Japan. It warmed his heart just to see that smile blossom on his face. They finished their breakfast in silence, Goro occasionally pointing out shady writings in the ledgers. Goro finished first and washed his plate before packing the remaining curry into Tupperware for them to take and disappearing off into the bathroom to do something about his hair.

“Are you ready to pack up and go home?” Akira asked from the kitchen as he washed his own plate. He was anxious to get these documents to Futaba and go home with Goro to the apartment. He had arranged for more flowers to be delivered and he was excited to see Goro’s reaction. He had chosen a bouquet of primrose this time, and it was wrapped in sheet music with a red ribbon- a touch that he was pretty proud of having come up with on his own. 

Goro nodded, coming out in casual clothes with a duffel full of his costume and the Tupperware. “After a fashion. I hope Morgana hasn’t gotten into anything.” The last time they’d come back from a long heist, Morgana had nearly torn down his marimo enclosure. Apparently he was very interested in fishing out the large, green moss ball with his _ teeth _. “I’m sure it’s fine,” Akira grinned, knowing that his cat was well behaved, but also mischievous like him. He shouldn’t promise that everything would be okay as soon as they walked into the apartment. 

“Alright,” Akira hummed and stuffed his own costume into the duffel. He disappeared to change into a grey hoodie and jeans, and by the time he came out Goro was ready by the door. One by one, they shut off the lights and bundled up in coats. Snow was falling on Shibuya today, and the weather forecast only predicted more. That was fine- they were prepared. Goro tugged on gloves, now exclusively for protecting his hands from the cold, and he turned to Akira. 

“Ready?” 

Akira looked up at him the scant inch it takes to meet his eyes, and Goro couldn’t help but steal a warm kiss before they’re subjected to the chill outside their door. Akira smiled, bright, wonderful, and happy.

“Yeah. Let’s go home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much for sticking with me until the end! I love you all dearly! Writing this story was a huge, very important part of my growth as a writer, and it means a lot to me that so much of you enjoyed it! 
> 
> I'm available on Tumblr as Pastel-Didactic, if anyone wants to pop by and say hi! My inbox is always open! 
> 
> I'm still planning on putting together a one-shot series of this universe, so be on the lookout for that! 
> 
> I HAVE ALSO PLAYED P5R! I am holding off on stories about that for a while yet, but I may be persuaded to write some NON-SPOILER one shots for you guys, if you so wish it! But I am cooking up something particularity angsty and emotionally devastating in the way that I do to be released later, for the benefit of the English players who haven't experienced Royal yet. 
> 
> I love you all! Until next time! <3

**Author's Note:**

> I'll try to post updates regularly, but please bear with me if I fall behind. I'm pretty busy these days!
> 
> If you like my work, and would like updates on when I post, please feel free to follow me on Tumblr! I am Pastel-Didactic on Tumblr. 
> 
> Until next time!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Speakeasy](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25363027) by [tearribly sheepish (TeaWeirdo)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeaWeirdo/pseuds/tearribly%20sheepish)


End file.
